Quote Originally Posted by Redleg
You find anything on how this desire relates to the China-North Korea relationship?

I have seen reports coming out of South Korea - that shows North Korea is attempting to normalize or at least give the appearance of it - their relationship with at least South Korea.
My general impression is that China regards North Korea a thorn in their side. For one thing, it prevents normalization of relations with South Korea - China's natural ally against Japan. Both share an absolute hatred for Japan.
But South Korea can never give up it's ties with the U.S. while the current regime in Pyongyang stays in power. Which means staying in the Japanese-American camp, whether they like it or not.

Here are the relevant parts from the link I provided:
Quote Originally Posted by Le Diplo
Another sign of the peaceful emergence of China is its involvement in the crisis in October 2002 between the US and North Korea, which has declared that it is now ready to produce an atomic bomb. Beijing was the moving force behind the group of six (China, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Russia and the US) formed to settle the dispute, and it is doing all it can to cool Pyongyang, stoked by the inflammatory statements of the Bush administration.

The prospect of a nuclear power in the Korean peninsula is not something Beijing relishes, and Yang confidently asserts that, if Pyongyang “were to start tests, we would cut off aid”. But opinion is divided on the question of pressure. Some think aid should be cut, at least to some extent, and they recall that once before, in 2004, a fortuitous technical incident caused an interruption in the flow of oil and forced President Kim Jong-il to resume negotiations (9). Others, like Professor Shen Dingli, take the opposite view, that “to stop aid would destroy all hope and drive [an already disastrous regime] to extremes”.

“Korea is a detestable burden,” says a former diplomat, “a regime in which people are dying of starvation to keep a dynasty in power. But China is stuck. It can neither advance nor retreat.” Sections of the army toy with the idea that nuclearisation is not all that serious and “Korea was and is China’s sentinel” in the event of conflict. Beijing has proved, if not to Washington at least to its neighbours, that it is capable of moving on from its old alliances and engaging in active diplomacy. Consider the moves to strengthen its links with the former ally of the US, South Korea, which fears destabilisation from the North.