China asserts dominance in the region but if you blinked you missed it; the difference between loud and clear and subtle and clear is the difference between, “bombing into the stone-age” and gently applying Asian lateral diplomacy. DPRK (Kim Jong il) rebuffs six-party talks but promises China during independent talks, that nuclear testing will cease. Miss war whore/status quo/dead children, Condoleezza Rice, and the rest of the world are left in no doubt which nation exercises the greater degree of influence in the region; a clear message has been sent – the world has taken note.