Please excuse the mixed and muddled metaphors. I'm just wondering if US President Barack Hussein Obama can employ the UK — which is looking for new running dog duties now that the Gulf War is winding down — in a bid to force China to stop sponsoring the rogue regime in Pyongyang.

What inspired this thought was this op-ed news piece in the Telegraph:

South Korea has already indicated that it plans to refer this extraordinary act of aggression by its estranged, renegade brother to the United Nations Security Council, where it will rightly demand stern and unanimous action against Pyongyang.

This is where the international spotlight will fall, with uncomfortable brightness, on China, the North's last ally which for years has advocated a softly-softly approach to North Korea in the vain hope that Kim could follow China's own transition from cultish despotism to economic reform.

China fears that tough action against North Korea could fatally destabilise a regime that is already on its knees economically and, according to reports from North Korean defectors, facing political instability following a disastrous attempt at currency reform last November.

But notwithstanding those concerns, China must join the rest of the world in condemning this attack which is only the third torpedoing of an enemy warship since the Second World War.

However, the early signs of whether China will live up to its new responsibilities as an emerging Great Power are not encouraging.

Hey, it would be great if the London representative on the UN Security Council would stand up and whack the Beijing representative in the head with his (her?) shoe if China's milquetoasty reply that the sinking was "unfortunate" (quoting the article) is repeated. Then he or she should repeat the rest of the article:

The sinking was a deliberate, pre-planned operation in which a North Korean submarine commander armed a torpedo, plotted a firing solution and then pulled the trigger, killing 46 young sailors in cold blood.

The fact that China appears unable to join the chorus of condemnation for this wanton act of provocation is simply unbecoming a nation that, day by day, demands a greater say in the how the world is run. With rights must come responsibilities.

Damned straight! I do believe, as I've often stated, that China needs to be put at ease about any concerns over Seoul taking over the DPRK, but at the same time, threats that it could replace the United States as the most-hated planet nation on Earth should be made. Ever so diplomatically.

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