Trump turns on charm, drops China bashing in meet with Xi

“Some forces are loud-mouthed that the recent USA military attack on Syria is an action of warning us but we are not frightened by it”, the report said, adding that the North’s “tremendous military muscle with a nuclear force as its pivot” will foil any aggression by the U.S.

The US on Friday carried out a missile strike on a Syrian airfield in retaliation for a “barbaric” deadly chemical attack on civilians that he blamed on the country’s strongman President Bashar al-Assad.

According to one US official, initial assessments indicate that up to 20 Syrian aircraft were destroyed after the USA hit Syria’s al Shayrat airbase with more than 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles Thursday. “I don’t think that [deploying nuclear weapons] is a good idea”. In an analysis, Xinhua also said Mr Trump had ordered the strike to distance himself from Syria’s backers in Moscow, to overcome accusations that he was “pro-Russia”. McMaster said of the deployment on Fox News Sunday.

Pyongyang has repeatedly warned that it aims to test an intercontinental ballistic missile or conduct another underground nuclear test. Analysts say one could come as soon as April 15, the 105th birthday of North Korea’s founding president and celebrated annually as the Day of the Sun.

The UN has banned it from missile or nuclear tests.

However, Pyongyang’s response suggested the reclusive state was determined to continue with its nuclear weapons programme.

Frederic Hof, director of the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council, said that if the strike is “simply a one-off, a punch in the nose for using those chemicals on those poor people, then the message is “do whatever you want, as long as it’s not with chemicals”.

He closed the letter with the following statement: “The United States will take additional action, as necessary and appropriate, to further its important national interests”.

China’s leaders in fact have always been concerned about the yawning United States trade deficit with their country, $347 billion in 2016.

The strikes followed Wednesday’s suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held Syrian town which killed 89.

As if to underline the point, North Korean state media released photos of a smiling Kim inspecting a mushroom farm. As the world leaders dined, the United States was in the midst of launching airstrikes against Syria.

Tillerson and others in the administration have taken pains to insist that the fundamental US approach to Syria has not changed, a sign that there’s no plan to keep raining American missiles on the Assad regime for now.

In that context, the strike against Syria may resonate more firmly in Beijing than Pyongyang.

But Mr. Trump’s decision to launch quick strikes raised questions about whether it would give the involved powers pause as they pursue their objectives in a war that seems to have no end in sight.

China is North Korea’s patron and arguably its only real ally, and the agenda at the summit included the issue of how to thwart Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

Last month, Assad said in a rare interview on Chinese television that Syria’s relationship with China “is going to be on the rise”. “Those means don’t exist now”, Admiral Howard said. “It’s not like Iraq”, Jia said.

The meeting between the president and Jinping marks a significant moment as Trump had campaigned with strident anti-China rhetoric and had angered Beijing before taking office by talking to the president of Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.