China’s two-faced approach to North Korea is being exposed. Over the past few months, Beijing has emerged as the linchpin in efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear program. In October, after North Korea abruptly decided to return to six-party talks, U.S. President George W. Bush thanked China for its key role in cajoling Pyongyang back to the negotiation table.

Now that control of the U.S. Congress will go to Democratic politicians who are, in general, more inclined to farm out foreign-policy responsibilities to foreign powers, Washington’s reliance on China regarding North Korea is likely to intensify.

And why not? Many reasons. After all, China is on our side. Recent reports indicate that China is siding with Washington, even toughening its stance against North Korea. Last Thursday, U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, after meeting with Russian and Chinese officials in Beijing, said that the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea all agree that the Korean Peninsula must be denuclearized.

While China’s recent willingness to assist America warms the hearts and soothes the minds of American politicians, can we sincerely believe Beijing’s empathy for our position is genuine?

China projects cooperation and kindness to the U.S.—but what does it express to Pyongyang?

One thing North Korea can know for sure is that China is not overly concerned about the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Beijing may tell America it is, but the nation’s sordid history with the thriving underworld of nuclear proliferation testifies strongly against this lie. China has a documented history of having direct and indirect connections to some of the world’s most notorious rogue nuclear states, including Iran, Libya, Pakistan—and oh, yes, North Korea!

China says that the Korean Peninsula must be denuclearized—but it does nothing to bring this about. In fact, China has a history of assisting North Korea, as well as nations like Iran, in developing nuclear weapons.

Bestselling author Kenneth Timmerman, in his acclaimed book Countdown to Crisis, reveals China’s role in Iran’s nuclear program in graphic detail. Timmerman shows how Chinese politicians and scientists have assisted Tehran in developing nuclear weapons, playing a central role in a global spider’s web of nuclear activity. This nation has a long and provable history of trading in the underworld of nuclear weapons development and illegal arms.

As he exposes the military and nuclear alliance between Beijing and Tehran, Timmerman discloses how both nations have been deeply involved with North Korea and its nuclear program, and how “China frequently used North Korea as a conduit to disguise its own [weapons] sales to Iran.”

Such history shows that anyone who believes China will meet North Korea’s nuclear program with any significant opposition is grossly misled.

Timmerman summarized this regional nuclear network this way: “Iran, Pakistan, China, North Korea: It was a deadly nexus. By 1991 their strategic goals were identical and their cooperation was running full-bore” (emphasis ours throughout). There was a time when China’s “strategic goals” precisely matched Iran’s and North Korea’s, and cooperation among these nations was running at “full-bore.”

But that was years ago. China is a changed nation today, right? Wrong. A congressional report released by the U.S. government this week reveals that even as late as this year the Chinese have been supporting North Korea’s nuclear program. Produced by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, the report highlights the depth of Beijing’s sympathy for North Korea and its dreams of acquiring nuclear weapons.

Bill Gertz, a long-time analyst specializing in Chinese affairs, reviewed the report and subsequently wrote in the Washington Times that, rather than toughen its stance against Pyongyang, “China [has] helped North Korea develop nuclear weapons and in the past year increased its support to Pyongyang, rather than pressing the regime to halt nuclear arms and missile activities ….”

This report, based on public testimony as well as newly released classified government intelligence, condemns America’s unwillingness and hesitancy to hold China accountable for its empathy toward North Korea. In the very least, the report states, “China has contributed … indirectly to North Korea’s nuclear program ….” Regarding the government report, Gertz continued in the Times piece,

North Korea was a recipient of nuclear goods supplied by the covert Pakistani nuclear supplier network headed by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, according to the group’s fourth annual report. Several links between Pakistan and North Korea’s arms programs have been identified, it stated. The unclassified version of the report does not include details of the Chinese support but notes that China has “a history” of helping North Korea develop its weapons.According to U.S. intelligence officials, North Korean front companies operate freely in China and have used China as a transit point for trade in missile and nuclear components.

The commission report also tells how, rather than exert economic pressure on North Korea in recent times, China “instead has actually increased its assistance and trade with North Korea.” This is the nation America is relying on for assistance in dealing with Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program!

The congressional report also discusses China’s role in global arms proliferation, saying Chinese companies and even government organizations “continue to provide weapons, weapons components and weapons technology” despite these transactions violating China’s commitments to international nonproliferation agreements. To think that China will hold North Korea to any kind of agreement not to sell weapons or nuclear technology when China itself routinely breaks its own nonproliferation agreements is naive and, frankly, laughable.

Combine this 2006 congressional report with the information documented in Timmerman’s book, and the reality of the situation smacks us in the face. Rather than coddling up to and relying more and more on China for assistance in handling North Korea, the United States should be holding China accountable for its long history of sanctioning and even supporting North Korea’s actions to acquire nuclear weapons!

America’s inability to confront China on this issue and its blind desire to rely so heavily on Beijing reveals a massive void in willpower and insight among American leaders. Sadly, such reasoning not only underpins America’s foreign policy with North Korea—it also underpins American foreign policy across the board.

To understand why this hole is developing in American leadership right now, read our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.