North Korea launches ballistic missile across northern Japan, falls into sea

[Anomalocaris]

I don't understand why China is allowing NK to provoke the other nations like this... they need to pull back their tiny pet dictator or else they too will get caught up in the crossfire.

Having a nuclear capability that have demonstrated and universally recognized to be able to inflict unacceptable damage to the core interests of the United States, Japan and South Korea is vastly more important to Kim Jung Un than anything the Chinese can take away from him.

So China has no immediate leverage over North Korea when it comes to the regime's behavior in making sure it is clear it can nuke its enemies and will not be cowered from doing so if need be.

The only thing the Chinese can do to stop him would be to invade and occupy his country.   But If china does that Kim can fire a nuke at Beijing or Shanghai even more easily than he can hit Guam.   China is not going to trade one of its own cities to make it easier for America to uphold its influence in China's own backdoor.   Also the Chinese are pleased North Korea is making a fool of trump just as trump is threatening to tear up the basis of trade between china and the US, and the Chinese are also pleased it is the North Korean people who are bearing the burden of and being impoverished to keep American forces away from Chinese border, and not the Chinese economy and people who have to bear much of that burden.

Their pet dictator gives china all the benefit of tying trump into a geopolitical pretzel without it looking like it is china that is trying to tie American into a geopolitical pretzel.