Even as the newly nominated commander of the U.S. Pacific Command called North Korea the biggest threat to Asian security, a former top People's Liberation Army major general said China would not "go to war for North Korea."

Admiral Harry Harris during his Senate Armed Services Committee nomination hearing this week said America's "most volatile and dangerous threat" was North Korea "with its quest for nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them intercontinentally."

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Meanwhile, the same day, retired PLA General Wang Hongguang, former Nanjing military region deputy commander, wrote in the official Chinese Communist Party's Global Times that "China is not a savior" for its willful nuclear-armed ally.

Wang added: "Should North Korea really collapse, not even China can save it."

The outspoken general has criticized North Korea in the past it wasn't immediately known if his words were indicative of official policy although writing a Global Times commentary was a significant indication this was consistent with current government thinking. His commentary was published only in the Chinese-language editions.

China has helped prop up North Korea ever since PLA troops went over the Yalu River to defend the North from South Korea and U.S.-led NATO forces. As the North's economy has tanked, China has helped keep the regime afloat. China, however, also has developed diplomatic and burgeoning economic ties with the South in the last two decades.

Significantly, Chinese President Xi Jinping has exchanged visits with South Korean President Park Geu-Hye even as he has yet to meet with the North's great leader, Kim Jong-un.

Should war break out on the Korean peninsula, China will not become embroiled, Wang said, adding, "China cannot influence the situation on the Korean peninsula. China has no need to light a fire and get burned. Whoever provokes a conflagration bears responsibility."

Wang noted that a "socialist camp" no longer existed in China calling for intervention when fellow Communist regimes were under fire. He also critiqued North Korea for its continuing quest to develop nuclear weapons.

On the other hand, Wang said Western nations shouldn't demonize North Korea nor interfere in that nation's internal affairs.

China would "support what should be supported and oppose what should be opposed," Wang said in reference to North Korea and would not "court" nor "abandon" the regime.

TagsNorth Korea, Wang Hongguang, harry harris, nuclear arms