OK, North Korea is in a desperate state, but won't nuke anyone. If they do then the U.S. should have sense enough to let China handle things, which they should be doing in the first place.

One of China's fundamental interests is also in oil... The bigger the country and the economy, the greater the demand. It doesn't matter whether business in Asia is more important than business with Iraq. None of it gets done without a reliable and secure middle east.

And for the record, I'm not saying U.S. policy is heading us in the direction of reliable and secure... quite the opposite, actually.