"The Big Mac would do wonders to effect regime change in North Korea," grins Fei-Ling Wang. Alas, he adds that the irresistible balm of free trade with America is unlikely given the complex and multi-layered relations among the players in the North Korean situation and China's role and interest.

Wang writes about China's policy toward the Korean peninsula and its increasing clout in the balance of relations between North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China, and the U.S. in a soon to be published book Engaging North Korea: A Viable Alternative (edited by David Kang and Sung Chull Kim, State University of New York Press).

A professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Wang has studied international relations within East Asia and with the U.S. for more than a decade. His new research highlights three priorities of Chinese policy toward North Korea: 1) no war, 2) no unification with South Korea and, 3) no nuclear weapons. Wang shows how goals one and three align with U.S. policy toward North Korea, though U.S. priorities are reversed (unification, especially on the South Korean terms, is not a major U.S. concern).

Wang believes that the U.S. holds a trump card that could resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, but says that we are unlikely to use it because of the complex interests of China and also those of Japan and South Korea, both of which have long standing issues with North Korea. Though China is concerned about a nuclear arms race in the region as a result of North Korea having a nuclear weapon, China's policies toward the Korean peninsula are intended to maintain the status quo. Not only does that serve their political and financial interests, but it has allowed China to take a seat among the world powers by supporting consensus around negotiating with North Korea to eliminate its nuclear weapons program and to be valued as an aid to peacekeeping. It is a key aspect of the shared strategic interest between Beijing and Washington these days.

The increased deepened financial ties between the U.S. and China further lessens the likelihood that Washington would disrupt the status quo to "solve" the North Korean nuclear issue unilaterally. "I expect that President Obama and his team have seen quickly that talking to this enemy is not that easy," says Wang. "The U.S. occupies a pivotal role in this, but it is a complicated, multi-layer and multinational game.

And so with none of the players willing to rock the boat (except for the self-preserving moves by Pyongyang, North Korea's capital), the balancing act continues with North Korea holding on to their weapon and blustering and threatening in attempts to goad the U.S. into action that would guarantee their security and the major powers maintaining status quo. None the less, North Korea remains a potentially explosive situation. Game changers could be a coup de etat in North Korea, Pyongyang's move to share nuclear technology with terrorists, or the regime's political collapse. There are also those in China increasingly arguing for it to reassert its historical power in the Korean peninsula, which can be another important factor to be reckoned with.

Wang's Big Mac solution sounds better all the time.