The U.N. has now definitively shown its irrelevance, by failing to take action to disarm…Korea. Randall Parker’s ParaPundit blog, which I mentioned yesterday, picks up on a huge story that has gotten little play in the papers. China has acted to block the Security Council from taking up the matter of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. This is very bad news. Many observers had hoped that China, on which the North Koreans are totally dependent, would bring pressure to bear on the North to disarm. There was some reason to hope that, despite their public reluctance to do so, the Chinese might be working to rein in the North Koreans behind the scenes. But by taking a leaf from France’s book at the U.N., the Chinese are now showing that they want no part of an effort to halt North Korea’s nuclear program. Will economic pressures from the U.S. bring the Chinese around? I doubt it. If the Chinese don’t want to police the North Koreans, anything we force the Chinese to do will be half hearted and ineffective. The Korean crisis grows.