“Rogue state” is a self-deluding Western foreign policy term that has helped China eschew responsibility for enabling North Korea’s aggressive nuclear weaponization, and it is time to call China a sponsor of lawless North Korean behavior that it has a duty to reverse, including irresponsible nuclear proliferation. Other Western terms for North Korea have included “outlaw” and “renegade” – terms that focused responsibility on the Kim Dynasty and minimized China’s role as North Korea’s top trade, aid, and political sponsor. Outlaw, rogue, and renegade replaced Cold War terms such as proxy, client, and satellite in the lexicon of U.S. administrations eager to put the 20th Century Cold War behind them.