"I say Chinese because IMHO everything that NK does is done following a quiet nod/request from their neighbours."
Plenty of evidence that hat isn't true - NK goes it's own way - especially for $$$ sales
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/27/chin...e-decline.html
" The decades-long strategic relationship between Beijing and Pyongyang is looking increasingly strained.
Traditionally reluctant to coerce Pyongyang, but under heavy pressure from Washington, the world's second-largest economy has been increasingly clamping down on its historical ally. Beijing has banned domestic lenders from doing business with North Korean clients in addition to halting certain exports in compliance with international sanctions — recent figures, however, showed a 3.7 percent annual increase in bilateral trade during the first nine months of the year.
The Chinese are increasingly realizing the North's nuclear program is harming Asian security, Renmin University associate professor Cheng Xiaohe told the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in a recent podcast.
But tensions between Xi and Kim aren't new. Since Kim came to power, the bilateral relationship has entered a period of abnormal relations marked by a decline in economic ties and lack of political solidarity, Cheng said.