February saw dramatic shifts in the relationship between China and North Korea, with the nature of the old alliance completely changed by the February 13 assassination of Kim Jong Nam in Malaysia. Up to that point, both had continued to grow closer even as problematic reports of the restarted Yongbyon reactor and rising bilateral trade, despite sanctions, surfaced in China. However, the undertone of Chinese public opinion on North Korea did not reflect this short-lived warming of relations, and the full nature of its reaction to the death of Kim Jong Nam has been obscured – largely by government censorship online