by James Taranto, Wall Street Journal
"North Korean leader Kim Jong Il expressed regret about his country's nuclear test to a Chinese delegation," the Associated Press reports:
"If the U.S. makes a concession to some degree, we will also make a concession to some degree, whether it be bilateral talks or six-party talks," Kim was quoted as telling a Chinese envoy, the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo reported, citing a diplomatic source in China.
Kim told the Chinese delegation that "he is sorry about the nuclear test," the newspaper reported.
Blogger "China Hand" theorizes that "North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear antics are an effort to demand attention, respect, and assistance from the PRC," the People's Republic of China:
North Korea's weapons programs are meant to discommode China with the threat of a Asian arms race and the specter of Japan becoming a pro-active regional security force with US backing, and remind Beijing of the necessity of advancing North Korea's interests on the world stage--in this particular case, getting China to support lifting some onerous U.S. financial sanctions.
Well, I believe China's looked at its options and opportunities and decided that the best riposte to North Korea's nuclear program is to strip Pyongyang of its independence in national defense and foreign affairs--in other words, assert virtually the same suzerainty that China imposed on the peninsula before the Japanese occupation in 1895.
Interesting theory.
If true, Kim must be feeling awfully ronery, and this would explain Kim's abjection before Beijing. Hand also argues that China has become increasingly friendly with South Korea: "In Beijing's plans for a prosperous, pro-Chinese Korean peninsula, cooperation with the South Korean powerhouse looms large." China is now South Korea's biggest trading partner, and anti-American sentiment has been growing in the south.
Not so sure I buy into that part; though it would explain a lot about how the SKors are acting.
"What I believe China wants is a North Korean regime that is profoundly isolated, helpless, and totally reliant on Chinese good offices to survive," Hand adds. "By this reading, the United States could profit from the estrangement between China and North Korea by embarking on a swift rapprochement with Pyongyang.
Not sure that is possible. How do you rapproach with a psychotic tyrrany that starves its own citizens, unless you're Henry Kissinger or some other "realist"?
Instead, we are doing everything within our power to force North Korea under China's heel and, in the process, perpetuate the existence of the same failed North Korean system--and regime--that we have sworn to destroy." 
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