What was to be incendiary

When I discover that my neighbor is cooking meth in his garage, my first concern is not for the poor addicts whose habit he is facilitating, or even for the young people who might be ensnared by those crystals.  Rather, my first concern is that when his garage explodes I'm going to lose the better part of my living room.  Or when rival cooks cruise by to fill his house with holes, my windows are not too far away.  So I am a bit confused that China does not take greater efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear program and missile testing.

Michael Elleman is a Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and explains that North Korea currently has 3 missiles with a range of over 6,000km (a kilometer is a goofy way of saying about 2/3 of a mile) that could reach the US: the Taepodong-2, Unha-2, and Unha-3 (which was used a few days ago to launch their first satellite into space).  However, the part of the US they can reach is Alaska.  Now, I'm not saying Alaska is not an important and beloved part of our country.  It is very important for the storage of strategic oil and moose reserves, but in that respect it is more like a back shed than the main living area of the house.  So I am not too concerned.   

It seems to me though, that China should be.  Not because of a Looney Toons type mistake where the missile gets aimed in the opposite direction or a missile meant to go one way catches a bad wind and fades back towards China (though I don't rule these out), but because if missiles start flying out of Korea, then the targets of those places are going to return the favor, and before you know it the once peaceful neighborhood with the usual tangible but non-violent tensions has turned into the worst parts of Baltimore or Detroit. 

In some ways I get why China doesn't intervene more aggressively.  They are not particularly loved throughout the world or in their region, and it helps to have the crazy friend to back you up if things get dicey.  But there is a crazy friend ratio to think about, and it is the ratio of crazy to muscle.  If your friend is incredibly powerful, then it is okay for them to be super crazy, because he will get into fights he can finish (this is known as The Hulk range of the spectrum).  However, if he is weaker than everyone else in the room, but crazy enough to pick fights with them, he is a liability (this is known as the Scrappy Doo range). 

North Korea has shown some advancement in their muscle with the rocket successfully launching the satellite.  But they have shown a disproportionate increase in crazy by doing it in violation of the United Nations sanctions barring the activities involving ballistic missiles.