By I guess we should give kudos to the Chinese for doing the responsible thing by rejecting this request:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il requested the Chinese government support the North with the latest in military weapons during his trip to China last May, according to a source in Beijing yesterday.
China turned down the request, he said.
“Kim Jong-il returned to North Korea from China last May in a bad mood,” the source said. “There may have been other reasons as well, but one of them was the Chinese government’s rejection of his request.”
Among the weapons that Kim asked for from China were 30 Jianjiji Hongzhaji fighter-bombers loaded with C-801 and C-802 anti-ship missiles.
The two-seat aircraft, also known as the “Flying Leopard,” is currently used by the People’s Liberation Army Naval Air Force and the People’s Liberation Army Air Force.
The source said Kim was convinced that North Korea should be prepared for a counter-strike from the United States and South Korea after the sinking of the Cheonan last March.
The North Korean leader also apparently tried to convince China that any attacks from the South and U.S. could spread to China.
The Beijing source said that China didn’t believe the North needed Flying Leopards, which have a range of 1,650 kilometers (1025 miles), because of its small sovereign airspace. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link but before people give China too much credit, keep in mind that allegedly the Chinese advised Kim Jong-il to keep denying that North Korea sunk the Cheonan instead of forcing them to come clean.
8:56 am on May 9th, 2011 1
“North Korean leader Kim Jong-il requested the Chinese government support the North with the latest in military weapons during his trip to China last May, according to a source in Beijing yesterday.”
Who is he kidding? Does he really think they’ll trust him with new technology when it’s very likely that he’ll have it reverse engineered, copied, and sold like he’s done with every other military weapon they were naive enough to give him?
9:03 am on May 9th, 2011 2
“The North Korean leader also apparently tried to convince China that any attacks from the South and U.S. could spread to China.”
Right. Considering how much mutually dependent their economies are, the most likely scenario is that China will sign a backroom deal with South Korea and the US that will allow them to strike if North Korea gets out of hand again.
9:56 am on May 9th, 2011 3
My last prediction is that NK would seek an escalation by attacking a Japanese or US ship.
10:18 am on May 9th, 2011 4
It’s looking more & more that the Red Chinese are recognizing that the North Korean regime is doomed to extinction. More of their weapons to NK is just pouring good money after bad.
1:06 pm on May 9th, 2011 5
#4,
Don’t you think the PRC agitprops like me are the ones who should know better what’s really going on here?
OK, I had to get that in, just for Kushibao. 
2:08 pm on May 9th, 2011 6
Tom, it’s pretty clear you don’t really know anything other than what you’re told to think.
Whether you’re PRC agitprop or, on the off chance, a leftist South Korea chinboista who inexplicably and implausibly shuns Korean nationalism in favor of Chinese hegemony over South Korea, all you know is what’s on the talking points memo you receive.
2:16 pm on May 9th, 2011 7
Back to the topic at hand, with the Manchurianization of North Korea, reining in Pyongyang’s excesses is vital to Beijing’s successful incorporation (economically, not necessarily politically) of North Korea.
Denying such aircraft fits in perfectly with the PRC’s new project for North Korea in the post-KJI era: integrating it with China’s northeastern provinces for the betterment of the Chinese economy.
9:47 pm on May 9th, 2011 8
#3
Meh, the DPRK doesn’t have the balls to sink a USN ship. Even if they wanted to, they probably couldn’t. Now, a JMSDF ship is possible, maybe. Key word: Maybe.
10:36 pm on May 9th, 2011 9
#8,
They neither have the balls to attack a US or a Japanese ship, which is why you can forget about the USS Pueblo ever being returned. They’ll milk that one as long as they can because it’s the only and last time they ever had the balls to try.
11:44 pm on May 11th, 2011 10
Tom, what should South Korea do about North Korea?
3:31 pm on May 14th, 2011 11
Relations with our old friends are back on track.
‘A delegation led by Gen. Chen Bingde, the chief of general staff for the [Chinese] Army, will visit several U.S. military installations and make sightseeing stops in Washington, Los Angeles and the Grand Canyon during a week-long swing across the country, U.S. military officials said Friday.’ They’ll even drop in on Mike Mullen at home.
Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post has the scoop.
3:28 pm on June 6th, 2011 12
I guess I’m really naive but I never would have thought that a regime as extreme as North Korea could last this long or be a source of so much international concern.
When I served there in 1983 I really thought I was at the tail end of a long period of potential conflict.
Man was I wrong!