WHEN the late North Korean president Kim Il-sung visited China in 1982, the editors of the China Daily were stuck for an English idiom to describe the closeness of the relationship between Pyongyang and Beijing.
The Chinese expression they wanted to employ, translated literally, was 'as close as lips and teeth'. The editors did not view a more colloquial English translation, 'as thick as thieves', as entirely appropriate.
But even in those days, when Beijing was competing with Moscow for Pyongyang's affections, China was not as uncritical of North Korea as the official media suggested. A senior editor on the China Daily pointed out what the paper never said, that China had failed to invite Kim Jong-il to accompany his father to Beijing. In China, where family connections are so important, there was unease about the world's first communist dynasty.
In the period since March 12, 1993, when Pyongyang declared its intention to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, some observers hoped that China would publicly call on North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
But while Washington rattled sabres, Beijing - as was to be expected - continued with its lips-and-teeth approach. And, judging by the broad agreement reached in Geneva this week on North Korea's nuclear programme, the US seems to have come round to the idea that almost any accord is probably better than none, and that the stakes are too high to risk confrontation.
North Korea has made several tangible gains from the negotiations and offered promises in return. For example, Washington has overcome its inhibitions about rewarding Pyongyang for its suspected nuclear-weapons programme, and is to accede to the North's request for the establishment of liaison offices in each other's capital as a first step towards diplomatic relations.