WaPo reports that N. Korea will continue the missile tests:

“Our military will continue with missile launch drills in the future as part of efforts to strengthen self-defense deterrent,” said a North Korean Foreign Ministry statement published by the country’s official news agency. “If anyone intends to dispute or add pressure about this, we will have to take stronger physical actions in other forms,” said the statement.

S. Koreans demonstrate against N. Korean missile launches
Image Source The Washington Post

What’s China going to do about this? Nothing, apparently:

Several observers warned that even if Beijing agreed to some form of censure, it would remain reluctant to impose tough economic sanctions out of fear that such measures could destabilize North Korea and spark a crisis on their shared border.

“I don’t think China will take at this moment stronger political or economic action against North Korea,” said Chu Shulong, a political science professor at Tsinghua University and expert in international security. “We Chinese believe basically, fundamentally it is not our problem, the missile launch problem. It’s a problem between North Korea and the U.S., it’s a problem between the DPRK and Japan, it might be a problem between North Korea and South Korea. But basically it’s not a China problem.” [Boldface mine.]

The U.S. response ought to follow logically then to make it “a China problem.” As I wrote before:

Thus it is now the time to press Beijing hard, for once. North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear threat would not be where it is today were it not for Beijing, and the U.S. should finally make China take responsibility — by agreeing to the quarantine. And the United States should make the continued Sino-American economic relationship contingent on China acting like a mature great power by exercising this responsibility.

Ultimately, China’s economic relationship with the U.S. is far more important for China’s economic growth and political stability than continuing to protect North Korea’s arsenal. The choice ought to be, thus, very clear for China’s leaders — provided, of course, that Washington presents Beijing with the choice.

Will the Bush administration, at last, exercise this potent lever to contain North Korea’s nuclear and proliferation threat? Or will the pro-China business lobby again trump national security and constrain the administration into rhetorically magnificent, but utterly ineffectual, symbolic gestures?