Thank you, sir.
The phrase used to be “the relationship was as close as lips to teeth”, and yes, now it is to “hugs”.
It is very interesting to see China's frustration actually being expressed in terms of, say, the Security Council.
I talked to the Chinese every time I had to go through Beijing to get to Pyongyang. Certainly, in my time it was: “We have to keep stability. We're worried about refugees coming over to China. We want to keep everything at a calm level.” Obviously, that is changing because China cannot control a lot of the incidents that North Korea has caused.
The Chinese-North Korean relationship is fascinating, I think. The North Koreans do not acknowledge the Chinese support during the Korean War. If you go to the fatherland front museum in Pyongyang, there is hardly a reference to China. Even now senior Chinese cadre are not happy about the fact even Mao Zedong's son died in Korea.
In terms of the six-party talks, not all players are equal within that context. Again, I think it's China and the U.S. who are the major players. More can be done, perhaps, bilaterally or trilaterally than in the six-party context.
A couple of issues.... Russia historically has had influence there. It no longer has. So it's there, but there is no big deal. Japan, with all due respect, has a lot of historic amnesia to get over, including its colonial past with respect to Korea, the entire Korea, and China, of course. So they have money but there are still problems there. It really is a question, perhaps, of trying to have those conversations with China and with the United States. Again, the United States knows so much about so many things, but with all due respect, they can't put together some of the lateral thinking that is needed to address something like North Korea.
There are no other models that I'm aware of out there, but there can be. There ought to be a lot of discussion. I think, as Mr. Kim, said, China is the key. There is an opportunity to engage them, if you have the credibility and move their thinking along a little bit.