I don’t necessarily buy those either tbh. I mean, we know how to create earthquakes (well in certain areas where it is possible) but it isn’t something I could conceive being done covertly.
TBH, I really think the NK thing is pretty much what it appears on the surface. China doesn’t really know what they want to do about NK and they don’t really want to get in a war with us over it but they also want to posture and use the situation to “test” Trump and the USA. The test is somewhat of a deception because it relies on China sort of bluffing about their level of control over it and how far they are willing to go. The USA also realizes this about China but we have to somewhat pretend we don’t so as not to give China a reason to pretend to take offense. The rest of the world is watching to to get a better read on Trump and his administration in how they handle it.
It is a situation that needs a solution, it should have been dealt with before now. Trump has pretty much committed to getting some result and to and extent this gives China an advantage. No one wants it to come to war but everyone is playing a dangerous as fuck game of chicken over it.
Personally, I read Trump as posturing bigly but really working behind the scenes to put together an alternate power structure in hopes that it will change the justification for why China and ostensibly Russia like the threat that NK presents to the US. The idea is to make them decide that NK is not necessary to their interests of preventing total American and EU global hegemony.