That's great news that China has finally seen the light and will put some serious pressure on North Korea. According to the article, the latest UN sanctions will cut N. Korea's exports by 1/3. Hopefully that will be enough pressure to keep the little Nero in line.
In retrospect, China would have benefited greatly if the 'North Korean threat' had never existed, since it's that threat that allowed the US to maintain its military presence in the region for the last 20 years. Without the ongoing threat from North Korea, US allies like Japan and the Philippines wouldn't have needed the US to protect them. So these countries would have gravitated toward closer relations with China, to China's benefit as a regional power.
But the perceived downside for China was that if North and South Korea had peacefully reunified, all of Korea would have then been dominated by South Korea, an ally of the US.
However, the reunified Korea would probably have gravitated toward China economically just as Japan and the Philippines would have. So China may have been worried about nothing.
The best thing all around would be for China to arrange for regime change in North Korea. They could keep it Communist, but put in a puppet leader who is sane.
