Trump: China cannot rein in N Korea
UNITED STATES: US President Donald Trump said yesterday that Chinese efforts to persuade North Korea to rein in its nuclear programme had failed, ratcheting up the rhetoric over the death of an American student who had been detained by Pyongyang.
Trump has held high hopes for greater co-operation from China to exert influence over North Korea, leaning heavily on Chinese President Xi Jinping for his assistance. The two leaders held a high-profile summit in Florida in April, and Trump has frequently praised Xi and resisted criticising Chinese trade practices.
‘‘While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!’’ Trump wrote in a tweet.
It was unclear whether his remark represented a significant shift in his thinking in the US struggle to stop North Korea’s nuclear programme and its test launching of missiles or a change in US policy towards China.
A US official, who did not want to be identified, said US spy satellites had detected movements recently at North Korea’s nuclear test site near a tunnel entrance, but it was unclear if these were preparations for a new nuclear test – perhaps to coincide with high- level talks between the US and China in Washington today.
The Diplomatic and Security Dialogue will pair US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defence Secretary James Mattis with China’s top diplomat, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, and General Fang Fenghui, chief of state of the People’s Liberation Army.
The State Department says the dialogue will focus on ways to increase pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programmes, but will also cover such areas as counterterrorism and territorial rivalries in the strategic South China Sea.
Trump has hardened his rhet- oric against North Korea following the death of Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who died on Tuesday after returning home from captivity in North Korea in a coma.
In a White House meeting with visiting Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko, Trump criticised the way Warmbier’s case was handled, appearing to assail both North Korea and his predecessor, President Barack Obama.
‘‘What happened to Otto is a disgrace. And I spoke with his family. His family is incredible ... but he should have been brought home a long time ago,’’ Trump said.
– Reuters
Bomber investigation
Belgian counter-terrorism police are probing the identity of a suspected suicide bomber shot dead by troops guarding a Brussels railway station after he set off explosives that failed to injure anyone. ’’We consider this a terrorist attack,’’ prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt told reporters, declining comment on witness accounts that the man had shouted Islamist slogans before detonating what witnesses said were one or two devices in luggage.
Heatwave in Britain
Britain may bask in the hottest June day for 40 years as the heatwave is set to grip the country for a fifth day. Highs of 34C are forecast in west London today, which would make it the hottest June day since the 35.6C (96F) recorded in Southampton on June 28, 1976. If the mercury surpasses the 31.7C recorded at Camden Square, north London, in 1936, it will be the hottest summer solstice on record.
Militants hit town
Pro-Islamic State militants stormed a town and occupied a school in the southern Philippines yesterday, a police officer said. Members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) were engaged in a gun battle with the military, Chief Inspector Realan Mamon, the police chief of Pigcawayan town, said. The town is in North Cotabato province in the centre of Mindanao island. Pigcawayan is 190km south of Marawi City, where BIFF militants, along with fighters from other groups allied to Islamic State, have been holed up and fighting the Philippines military for more than a month.
Parole hearing for O.J.
A parole hearing for former football star O.J. Simpson, serving time in a Nevada prison for a 2008 robbery and kidnapping conviction, has been set for July 20, the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners announced yesterday. Simpson, 70, who was acquitted in a sensational doublemurder trial that gripped America two decades ago, was sentenced to as much as 33 years in prison for a bungled 2007 attempt in Las Vegas to recover memorabilia from his sports career.