With Kim’s escalating rhetoric about war with the South and the West, China needs its leverage to preserve peace in its backyard and cannot afford to be seen alienating its only treaty ally. This places China in a serious bind without any real options except to hope that the EU and U.

Russian President Putin says his country attacked Ukraine with a new missile. He is also strengthening his alliance with North Korea. Council on Foreign Relations President Michael Froman joins Andrea Mitchell to weigh in on the escalation amid the ongoing conflict.