On the surface, China seems to be fulfilling its obligations as a member of the international community and a key player in dealing with North Korea’s latest nuclear and missile provocations.

The Beijing government departed from its usual tepid attitude by joining the international community’s condemnation of the North after it detonated its fifth nuclear bomb Sept. 9.

A permanent member of the UN Security Council, China agreed to a statement which called for the council to take “further significant measures” against the latest North Korean provocation that breached previous UN resolutions.

China’s Foreign Ministry also said “it is necessary for the Security Council to further respond to the nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

Last week, China joined the world’s recognized nuclear weapons states in denouncing North Korea’s fifth nuclear test and calling for a “complete, verifiable, and irreversible” denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The five nations — which double as the “P5” members of the UN Security Council — reaffirmed their commitment to the full implementation of the 2005 Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks, which refers to a denuclearization deal in which the North agreed to dismantle its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and political concessions. The statement also urged the North “to respond to diplomatic efforts aimed at the eventual resumption of the Six-Party Talks.”

This call for the resumption of the Six-Party Talks, which had been suspended since late 2007, sounds hollow since none of the three P5 members that participated in the multilateral talks — the US, China and Russia — have done much to bring the North back to the negotiation table. 
China and, to a lesser degree, Russia are primarily to blame for the current situation as the former communist allies of the North often caused cracks in otherwise concerted international actions on the rogue regime’s provocations. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi once again disclosed what is on his government’s mind. In a telephone conversation with his Japanese counterpart last week, Wang made it clear that Beijing opposes unilateral sanctions on North Korea.

In other words, China is saying that it will not accept any actions it cannot put under its control and it will continue to play the North Korea card. The latest South Korean and Japanese news reports show that despite the toughest-ever UN sanctions imposed on the North in March this year, trade activities on the North Korea-China border are as brisk as ever. Indeed, it is more challenging to change China than North Korea.