> China would never get rid of such a powerful way to annoy everyone else
It's not just this. China doesn't want a unified, Western-friendly Korea directly on its border. They also don't want the mass refugees if NK fails.
It's not just this. China doesn't want a unified, Western-friendly Korea directly on its border. They also don't want the mass refugees if NK fails.
Very questionable. If you read about the Rangoon bombing[0] the short of it is the Chinese passed on a note from the NKs to the Americans requesting trilateral talks, essentially vouching for them, just prior to the bombing. Apparently, Deng Xaiping said afterwards he'd never let 'that motherfucker' (Kim Jong Il) set foot on chinese soil as long as he lived, and apparently, KJI never did.
All of the pathways to a rational NK have outcomes that China would not like including both collapse of the North Korean state, hostility between China and NK or variations on unification between SK and NK. The only stable option is to work with NK too slowly migrate towards a modern Chinese communism approach over the span of decades through the use of aid money, advisors, economic exchange, and educational programs. This only risks periodic regression via purges within North Korea.