In a very transparent propaganda push, Western media has launched repeated attacks on China for not being "tough enough" on North Korea. They try to portray North Korea's provocations, which are explicitly directed at the US, as targeted at China. They try to portray the deteriorating situation on the Korean Peninsula as a failure on China's part. The reason for this is very simple. The West wants to pressure China into actions that will make Pyongyang view Beijing as negatively as they do Washington. The US, instead of dealing with its own problem, wants to dump it onto China's lap.



It is not likely that Western media is foolish enough to believe such weak attempts at manipulation are going to work. The simple fact is a nation hostile to them is on the path to developing a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile capability. These propaganda responsibility games are a desperate coping mechanism. North Korea wants nuclear weapons because of the US, not China.



Korea was split in the first place because of the US. The North Korea issue is very much the US responsibility and only the US can truly address the reason why North Korea wants such weapons in the first place.



Some Western analysts enjoy speculating that China hasn't "solved" the North Korea issue because it wants to avoid a unified, US-friendly Korea bringing US troops to its border. China has not "solved" the issue because it is not for China to solve. In yet another warped assumption, the West has taken China's most vocal protests against a potential war on the peninsula to mean China is the one who fears war the most.



In this misguided view, they think they can use this as leverage against China - this is a grave miscalculation. It is not China that will suffer the most if the US' warmongering results in war. It is the US' so-called allies that will pay the highest price.



North Korea's greatest leverage has nothing to do with its perceived backing from China. It is all about how much damage they can do to South Korea and Japan. China's concern for stability is absolutely not leverage they can use for manipulation, and it would be wise for them to stop pretending it is.



When Win/Gallup International asked people from 65 countries which country poses the greatest threat to world peace, unsurprisingly the US came out the clear winner.



We are living in a world where the country that has invaded other countries on practically every continent on the planet makes accusations about who begs for war. This is the reality of how the West tries to portray North Korea as the irrational threat.



The refusal by the US to accept how it has conducted itself around the world is probably why they cannot comprehend why North Korea would go to such lengths to develop nuclear weapons. As Russian President Vladimir Putin said, sanctions are useless if North Koreans will resort to eating grass in order to keep their nuclear weapons program.



The problem of North Korea will never be resolved peacefully unless the US is willing to understand why North Korea does what it does instead of just writing them off as "crazy." The US should stop hoping China will make an enemy out of North Korea and allow it to run away from its own problems.



The author is a commentator from Hong Kong. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn