I didn't bother reading your article but there is some truth to it in that both North Korea and China tend to operate from "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" approach. China benefits strategically from having a country in its sphere on its border and North Korea benefits from having Chinese influence on North Korean - US relations which besides nukes is a big factor for the US not disposing the regime a long time ago.
Most foreign policy issues and nations involved work through layers. There are lower and mid level people and even known or suspected spies working together to channel information to executive levels to make sure a war doesn't happen. It's part of the reason there was no Nuclear Holocaust during the Cuban missile crisis.
Just like China and NK hack the US, the US hacks them. Its preventative intrusion. Whenever China allegedly "intrudes" on neighbors rights, we just float an aircraft carrier right off their cost. A lot of its showmanship, its when it is miscalculated that you have issues. The US and all of the APAC countries have more to lose by fighting then to just have a pissing contest every few months to make a forceful impression on their own citizens. If you want to see a more probable chance of war with China elect Trump and put up trade tariffs and other things to make the economic relationship less reliable.
If you're interested in these things, I would recommend Foreign Policy. Their articles and magazine used to be extremely long and scholarly, but they've adapted to the internet with very easy to read articles and opinions on just about anything you can thing about - most of its free but a member ship is about $70 annual I believe. There are also a number of authors that analyze "power politics" which explain relationships between different countries, hard and soft power and realism vs. idealism.
