The US Will Deal With North Korea With Or Without China’s Help

Chinese president, Xi Jinping, is set to visit Trump’s Florida resort this week as the two leaders are expected to discuss the growing threat from Kim Jong Un’s nuclear programme.

And China has great influence over North Korea. So far, waiting for China to pressure North Korea into curbing its nuclear program, hasn’t worked. He has often said his policies would be tougher than his predecessors. The American leader has long made it his ambition to reduce the $347-billion trade deficit with China, and how he begins this gargantuan task this week will be crucial to his presidency as well as to the future of the USA economy. The interview was published on Sunday.

During his swing through Asia last month, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the past 20 years of USA policy toward North Korea have been a failure.

Last year North Korea conducted two nuclear weapons tests and 24 missile tests.

Tillerson said the United States side will exert all efforts to prepare for the meeting and was willing to work with the Chinese side to make sure that the meeting can produce positive results. Trump, however tweeted last week that he expects “a very difficult” meeting, and on Friday said: “We’re going to get down to some very serious business”, referencing what he believes is China’s negative impact on the USA economy, especially manufacturing jobs.

Security officials, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper a year ago, have said since then there have been no signs yet of a KN-08 test-launch. “We’re going to continue to put pressure on China to have action”. China actually stands accused of exploiting loopholes in past UN Security Council resolutions to continue engaging the North in trade, thus undermining worldwide efforts to prevent North Korea from developing weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them to targets around the world.

China is not about to act bilaterally on the Korea question without a quid pro quo elsewhere.

Trump says the U.S. could increase the tax on Chinese imports, something that could tilt the trade balance in favour of the U.S. and, in his view, give Washington an opportunity to arm-twist Beijing into taking a tougher line on North Korea. “I think Russian Federation was involved in the election”, she told ABC News.

“We can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses”.

But aides say he won’t pull his punches, especially on trade, on which he has held an outspoken view for decades. It accounts for about 90% of the North’s trade and is a key supplier of fuel and numerous other necessities that keep the North’s economy running.

This adds to doubts as to whether the two leaders can find common ground on North Korea and China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea.

He pointed out that North Korea’s status as a nuclear state is enshrined in its constitution and for the country to change its behaviour it must face even tougher sanctions from nations around the world. And this can’t be done without the Chinese. “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 said. “So we hope that we get as many foreign ministers to come as possible”, Haley told a news conference to mark Washington’s presidency of the Security Council for April.

“We’re going to war in the South China Sea in 5-10 years”, he said in March 2016.

A US government official told Reuters the review “de-emphasizes direct military action”. He predicted only a year ago on a Breitbart radio show that the USA would find itself in armed conflict with China within a decade.

“Xi’s performed pretty well in these types of environments”, said Christopher Johnson, a China expert and former Central Intelligence Agency analyst at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.