Will China stand aside if North Korea wants to talk to Trump?

By increasing the size and scale of the prospective nuclear tests, Pyongyang may be positioning itself to get the attention of the US directly, rather than through other countries

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A US F18 fighter jet lands on the deck of US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:20pm, 14 Apr 2017Updated: 4:20pm, 14 Apr 2017

Almost all nuclear scientists agree that land-based or underground nuclear detonations are no longer necessary. These fission activities can easily be done with computer simulations. This has been the case since the end of the Cold War.

The science of using artificial intelligence to gauge the destructiveness of each bomb, however, is not something North Korea seems interested in, even though Pyongyang has access to super computers. Why?

Jennifer Lind, an Asia specialist at Dartmouth College, argues that over the decades, North Korea has become adept at playing the role of a madcap country. By feigning madness, or, irrationality, it has injected an aura of unpredictability that serves as a perfect counterpoise to its military and strategic weakness. It all started, not with the end of the Cold War but with China’s recognition of South Korea in 1993.

When Beijing and Seoul established a normal diplomatic relationship, Pyongyang was stunned. It was being abandoned not merely by the Soviet Union, which was gone by 1991, but China too, its main patron. To this day, the fear of complete abandonment is real, as China imports close to 80 per cent of North Korea’s coal.