China is a South Asian country, sharing borders with 14 countries including India. Its significance lies in its rise in the region and hegemonic influence over smaller countries through loans and the Belt and Road Initiative. China and India have fought a major war in the 60s and have disputes over the Aksai Chin and LAC, and tensions over the Indo-Pacific.
North Korea has committed itself to “ complete denuclearisation “. That leaves no scope for America to recognise it, even informally, as a nuclear power. Capabilities developed at high cost, exacerbated by crippling sanctions, will have to be neutralised or surrendered, subject to verification and safeguards, including from the IAEA. No sovereign nation has gone so far in the past. It is now for America, its allies, and also China to start the process of dismantling sanctions and offering North Korea substantial economic benefits. It remains the only impoverished nation in East Asia. It people deserve to see an improvement in their living standards.