About China urges others to help keep North Korea stable (Reuters)

In other words, supply NK with oil and food so they don't freeze or starve to the point of desperation that they take to threats and agression against Seoul and Japan...
Famine and energy crisis now could make the new "glorious esteemed supreme leader" loose face, and that would be devastating to the leadership in Pyonyang.

Personally I think it should be left to China to sort out, the West is bailing out enough failed states of its own so this would be a good time for the Chinese to step up and put their money to good use.

Lets face it who really cares if North Korea falls over tomorrow outside of China and South Korea and would it matter all that much to South Korea if the North became a Chinese province after all it would just be another bunch of sabre rattling communist whack jobs parked on their doorstep and the Chinese are slightly less crazy than the lot that are there now.

Make no mistake, I wouldn't even consider urinating on the glorious esteemed leader if he caught fire, and his loyal people...well, they are loyal and we're unable to help them in any constructive manner untill they get rid of the present regime.

The idea of giving in to blackmail from a kleptocracy and brutal dictatroship governed by a bunch of paranoid relics from an alternative dimention makes my stommach turn like a concrete mixer, but facts are that we may not have any choice.

Failing to give the NK regime what they ask for may be taken as a hostile action, and they might retaliate by bombarding Seoul and try to hit Japanese mainland with a missile carrying God knows what in the warhead..

They simply doesn't reason the way we do, and logic may be as scarce as food in the NK.

Ah come now 84RFK, hes only been on the job two days- give him a chance aye! He looks like a big softie to me =p

Yeah we do have a choice, we have the choice to say f**k this and let the chips fall where they may as the policies of appeasement do not make the problem go away.

The reality is that NK can not win even with a first strike capability they are a mosquito in the game of life, they get the first bite but the rest of the world gets to make it go splat.

Well, the problem is that the NK is practically holding the South-Korean capital hostage under the barrells of the worlds largest artillery park.
One wrong move and goodbye Seoul...kinda like letting Samtheneanderthal liberate Paris...

Ok but is constantly giving in to their childish tantrums helping the situation as every year now it seems they are back with their hands out for more using the same threats and extortion methods.

And the alternative...?

Refuse to bail them out and see what happens, the reality is that if they are going to hold the South to ransom and the South is just going to give in every time then we may as well abandon SK altogether and allow the North to run the lot.