US will act alone on North Korea if China fails to help, Trump says
US will act alone on North Korea if China fails to help, Trump says
President tells FT: ‘If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will’
Ahead of Xi Jinping visit, UN ambassador Haley steps up call for help
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, with tank crews, in an undated photograph. Photograph: KCNA/Reuters
Monday 3 April 2017 00.53 BST First published on Sunday 2 April 2017 20.31 BST
Donald Trump has issued China with an ultimatum that if it fails to put pressure on North Korea to disable its nuclear programme, then the US is prepared to take action against Pyongyang on its own.
“Well, if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will,” the president said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Sunday.
Asked how he would tackle North Korea, Trump said: “I’m not going to tell you. You know, I am not the United States of the past where we tell you where we are going to hit in the Middle East.”
Trump will host the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, this Thursday and Friday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where the two leaders are expected to discuss North Korea, China’s ambitions in the South China Sea and trade.
Trump said he had “great respect” for Xi and “great respect for China”, adding: “I would not be at all surprised if we did something that would be very dramatic and good for both countries and I hope so.”
About North Korea, he said: “China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone.”
Asked what might motivate China to help, Trump said: “I think trade is the incentive. It is all about trade.”
In the same interview, Trump also praised the European Union’s response to Brexit, claiming the UK’s withdrawal from the bloc could be a “very good thing” for both parties.
Compared with previous comments in which he boasted about “predicting Brexit”, he struck a more conciliatory tone about the future of the EU, claiming the 27 other members were “getting their act together” and that it had become less likely that other countries would follow the UK’s example.
In a separate conversation, Trump’s deputy national security adviser, KT McFarland, told the FT there was a “real possibility” North Korea could be capable of hitting the US with a nuclear-armed missile by the end of Trump’s first term. Intelligence experts disagree with McFarland’s assessment.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/02/donald-trump-north-korea-china
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