We're Not Blowing Up North Korean Rockets. The Red Chinese Are

It is one of the biggest non-mysteries of Asia: Why do DPRK (North Korea) ballistic missiles keep blowing up? The DPRK Rocket Force has a recent failure rate of 90%. The answer is, because the Chinese are blowing them to bits shortly after take off.

Expert say that every ICBM or missile, contains an explosive safety charge to self-destruct an errant rocket before it hurts people on the ground. We don't know the radio frequencies that those components respond to, but the Chinese do.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has apparently ordered the People's Liberation Army, the world's largest army incidentally, to deny the DPRK a successful missile launch until it returns to the bargaining table.

The Chinese manufacture most of the components for the DPRK Rocket Force. These advanced guidance systems and other parts were purchased ostensibly as part of civilian programs. The Chinese have recently realized that the DPRK is more of a liability than an asset, given that the US, Japan and South Korea each trade far more with the People's Republic of China (PRC), than they do with the North.

The Chinese have for the first time been enforcing UN sanctions against DPRK, affecting the latter's exports of coal, crabs and other raw materials.

Donald Trump knows all of this, which is why he has expressed gratitude to President Jinping recently. Trump has accused North Korea of "disrespecting the wishes of China" following its latest ballistic missile test. China is the North's main trading partner and the US president has been urging Beijing to try to rein in the reclusive state's military activities.

South Korea said Kim Jong-Un's regime had fired the rocket from around Pukchang, which is near the North's capital, Pyongyang. Seoul and Washington said it had apparently failed shortly after its launch.

China's semi-official Global Times newspaper criticized an ongoing "game of chicken" between North Korea and Washington but also knocked Pyongyang's tech talents.

Early Saturday, the reclusive communist nation launched yet another missile, presumably in a new display of force amid a verbal war of words with President Donald Trump. However, the missile exploded seconds after liftoff, and officials said the failed test involved a short-range, non-nuclear missile able to hit Seoul but not Japan.

"The test's failure shows that the country's missile technology is not mature, and that the missile-launching vehicle paraded on the Day of the Sun not long ago may have only been a mock-up," the English-language Chinese publication said in a commentary.

Moreover, it contends North Korea's missile tests are not just for research and development purposes but part of "an outdated confrontational mentality" demonstrated by the hermit regime.

"Missile tests are North Korea's way of expressing its dissatisfaction, and the most recent test is a typical example," the paper said. "Pyongyang also attempts to use missile tests to boost North Korean public morale, and they're often held during the country's key anniversaries."

North Korea launched a ballistic missile early Saturday local time in the vicinity of Pukchang airfield, the U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported the missile apparently exploded soon after liftoff.

The Chinese paper noted Pyongyang attempted missile tests that had failed previously, and suggested the North's intercontinental ballistic missile threat to the U.S. was not immediate.

"If North Korea's test continue to fail, this will not enhance its deterrence, and may instead cause contempt from the U.S., Japan and South Korea. Washington would think Pyongyang is far from possessing missiles that could reach U.S. soil."

At the same time, the paper said "both Washington and Pyongyang are playing a game of chicken, and their moves and messages are difficult to interpret."

The publication also called on Beijing to "require the U.S. to ease its military threat against Pyongyang and show that it's willing to peacefully resolve the Korean Peninsula issue, and not threaten the survival of Pyongyang's regime."