By Donald Kirk in Seoul and David McNeill
A day after leaked diplomatic cables suggested that its crucial ally China could be willing to let its government fall, North Korea yesterday wielded the club of nuclear intimidation and boasted for the first time of its rapidly expanding weapons programme.
Wikileaks' massive cache of private US government communications has greatly complicated the political and military calculus on the Korean peninsula, less than a week after Pyongyang reminded the world of its unpredictability with an attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong.
After the revelation that US officials believed Iran had received sophisticated missiles from the Korean government came a further cache of cables that claimed a growing body of opinion within the senior Chinese leadership would not intervene if the reclusive state collapsed. They suggest that China is much less informed about North Korea's strategy than observers had previously thought.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
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