Chinese Political Scientist Sun Zhe: North Korea's 'Calculated Chess Move' - SPIEGEL ON... - 0 views
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The North Koreans certainly did not listen to us. They currently don't view their relations with Beijing as a strategic priority. Their policies are completely oriented toward the Americans. There, they are playing a high-stakes game of poker.
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SPIEGEL: What do the North Koreans really want? Sun: They want to be treated as an equal partner by the US and by the other Western countries. And they absolutely want to have diplomatic relations with Washington.
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SPIEGEL: And for that you have to detonate atomic bombs? Sun: On the face of it, it indeed seems very strange. But it is a precisely calculated chess move. The North Koreans want to be noticed;
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Sun: More than anything, Beijing wants to prevent Japan from using the situation in North Korea as an excuse for becoming a nuclear power itself.
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Sun: The only way to exert pressure on Pyongyang is to cut off deliveries of energy and food.
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Sun: President Barack Obama should resume normal relations with North Korea, send some professors to Pyongyang and do something. That's the only chance for bringing North Korea to its senses
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We don't need hard sanctions; we need a strategy of "soft landing" for East Asia.