Which Taiwan option would be preferable?

[Orser67]

My long-term hope is that the U.S. "trades" Taiwan for North Korea. By that I mean that the U.S. announces that it will no longer protect Taiwan (Taiwan would then ideally become a semi-autonomous part of China), and in return, China cuts off all trade with North Korea. Hopefully, the North Korean regime would semi-peacefully collapse, the U.S. could withdraw the ~20,000 soldiers stationed in South Korea, and China and the U.S. would be much less likely to get involved in WW3.

[Orser67]

My long-term hope is that the U.S. "trades" Taiwan for North Korea. By that I mean that the U.S. announces that it will no longer protect Taiwan (Taiwan would then ideally become a semi-autonomous part of China), and in return, China cuts off all trade with North Korea. Hopefully, the North Korean regime would semi-peacefully collapse, the U.S. could withdraw the ~20,000 soldiers stationed in South Korea, and China and the U.S. would be much less likely to get involved in WW3.

Using 24 million taiwanese people as nothing more than a bargaining chip? That sounds lovely.

The U.S. is overextended against the only other superpower in the world; China cares a lot more about Taiwan then we do. Ideally, the PRC would suddenly become a democracy, or just decide to leave Taiwan alone. But since both of those things are incredibly unlikely, I'd rather the U.S. stop propping up a non-UN member state than risk World War 3.

Also, by gaining China's cooperation, we could play a major role in bringing down one of the most oppressive and dangerous governments in the world in a country (North Korea) of 25 million.