It is a truism that there is nothing much to like about North Korea. It is harsh, authoritarian, repressive and secretive. And its economic structural problems are largely of its own making - a direct result of the huge expenditure on its "military first" policy, its socialist economic principles and the greed, graft and moral obloquy of the ruling elite. But there has never been a popular uprising and the regime is likely to continue. And China has a vital interest in its ongoing survival.

As with Mark Twain's death, predictions of North Korea's imminent collapse are misplaced. Such imaginings tend to be the preserve of enthusiasts in the Pentagon and the State Department; the same ones who insist foolishly that Kim Jong-un is irrational; who refuse to deal with Pyongyang, hoping for collapse.

The geopolitical reality is that North Korea is committed to being a nuclear state. At some point in the not too distant future, it will miniaturise nuclear warheads on intercontinental ballistic missiles. Refusing to engage with it will not make that prospect go away. Washington's policy of non-engagement serves only to maximise the fear, antagonism and pugnaciousness that have characterised North Korean policy for years. The Pentagon's frequently expressed mantra that it will not reward bad behaviour is unwise. China's recent criticism was pointed. It counselled the United States that by not talking to Pyongyang "you will only drive them in the wrong direction", and that a policy of non-engagement is "only making things worse".

Now China and Russia are taking matters into their own hands, jointly proposing a sensible way forward in North Korea - while Washington appears determined to remain locked in its unresolved 70-year-old war with North Korea. The ground is shifting in Northeast Asia. China and Russia are gradually forming a military semi-alliance in the region. Both countries are united in their desire to check American expansion in the Asia-Pacific. Since 2012, their navies have held regular joint exercises in the East China Sea, the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea. And last year, the Chinese and Russian foreign ministers issued a joint statement objecting to American intrusion in the dispute between China and the Philippines over territorial claims in the South China Sea - on the ground that the US was not a littoral state. There is a perception of American hypocrisy on the South China Sea issue. Washington has not ratified the very treaty - the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea - to which it demands China adhere.