Law of unintended consequences

North Korea’s sabre-ratting against the US has actually left its strongest ally, China, feeling that it is being encircled, writes Paul Eckert.

NOBODY but Kim Jong-Un knows what he hopes to achieve with his sabre-rattling campaign, but the young North Korean leader probably didn’t set out to aid the United States — the sworn enemy of three generations of Kims — at the expense of his country’s main ally, China.

In a boon for US policy that can only add to China’s frustration with Kim, North Korean bellicosity has helped reinforce an American strategy of rebalancing its security policies toward the Asia-Pacific region.