It took a while but now even the Associated Press is seeing that the Chinese have no intention of forcing the North Koreans to disarm:

China’s recent offer of aid to North Korea could undermine U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang and help feed a cycle of failed negotiations aimed at ending the isolated country’s nuclear program, a former U.S. negotiator said Thursday.Last week, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited the impoverished North, which relies heavily on outside assistance to feed its people, armed with a reportedly $20 million aid package. In return, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Wen he would rejoin six-party nuclear disarmament negotiations if direct talks with the U.S. were fruitful.

Wen’s trip came as North Korea began to take a series of conciliatory steps after months of raising tensions including staging nuclear and missile tests.

Analysts say the about-face shows the regime is feeling the pain of U.N. sanctions adopted with Chinese support to punish Pyongyang for the May nuclear test.

Victor Cha, a former deputy American nuclear negotiator for North Korea, said that China’s “fairly substantial package of assistance” could lead to the repetition of a failed negotiating pattern with North Korea.

“We end up in the same cycle, which is they get some assistance to come back to talks. There is some negotiation that leads to some interim steps. There is another crisis, another provocation and the cycle starts all over again,” Cha said at a forum in Seoul on the nuclear standoff.  [Associated Press]

You can read more about what Victor Cha has said before about North Korea here.