What happens in Korea

North Korean security chiefs and possibly even Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un himself should face international justice for ordering systematic torture, starvation and killings comparable to Nazi-era atrocities, U.N. investigators said on Monday.
The investigators told Kim in a letter they were advising the United Nations to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court (ICC), to make sure any culprits “including possibly yourself” were held accountable.
North Korea “categorically and totally” rejected the accusations set out in a 372-page report, saying they were based on material faked by hostile forces backed by the United States, the European Union and Japan.
The unprecedented public rebuke and warning to a ruling head of state by a U.N. Commission of Inquiry is likely to further antagonize Kim and complicate efforts to persuade him to rein in his isolated country’s nuclear weapons program and belligerent confrontations with South Korea and the West.

China, a member of the UN Security Council, will see to it that absolutely nothing happens to North Korea as a result of this report.
But the timing is rather interesting, considering that the US and South Korea are about to hold major military exercises starting in the next couple of weeks.
The United States and South Korea will hold their joint military exercises despite harsh criticism from North Korea which has described them as a rehearsal for invasion and a prelude to war. The allies' combined forces command said in a statement on Monday that “Key Resolve" and "Foal Eagle" exercises will be held from February 24 to April 18. "The United Nations Command has informed the Korea n People's Army in North Korea through their Panmunjom mission about both Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise dates and the non-provocative nature of this training," the statement read. A total of 12,700 US military soldiers will take part in military maneuvers, according to the statement.
These exercises will last well over a month, folks: any kind of misinterpretation, misread, provocation, or simply a boneheaded mistake from any side could have the US plunged into war defending South Korea.
If ever in his two administrations, President Obama desperately needs a distraction from the absolute, signature train wreck his leadership has inflicted upon this country, and may feel that a proxy war with China would be such a distraction.
I would, however, like to politely point out that at this point in its existence, the US military doesn't have the troop strength, the manufacturing, or the money to insure a positive outcome to a conventional war against China; and that is what makes the military scenario so scarily dangerous.

China ‘to press N Korea to quit nuclear programme’

United States secretary of state John Kerry has announced that China is willing to exert more pressure to get North Korea to give up its nuclear programme.
He told reporters in Beijing he was pleased China “could not have more forcefully reiterated its commitment” to the goal of denuclearising North Korea.
The reclusive Asian state has defied international warnings not to build atomic bombs and long-range missiles.
North Korea is believed to have enough fissile material to build up to ten nuclear bombs, but most intelligence analysts say the country has yet to master the technology to deploy such weapons.

The real question is how far China is willing to go to threaten or cajole North Korea into some kind of negotiated status here, to change the armistice into a lasting negotiated peace, with guarantees for trade.
I hope the Chinese are able to do this; but I frankly wouldn't bet real money on it, not in the near term.