The Donald has measure of Kim
NORTH KOREA PROBLEM ‘WILL BE SOLVED’ Called North Korean leader a ‘madman with nuclear weapons’.
US President Donald Trump said yesterday the “problem” of an increasingly belligerent North Korea would be “solved”, as he met with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe just before the start of the G7 summit.
“It’s a big problem, it’s a world problem,” he said in the Sicilian town of Taormina, just weeks after he called North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un a “madman with nuclear weapons”.
The issue of North Korea, whose missile and nuclear tests have its neighbours and the wider world concerned, will be discussed in joint meetings with the other six heads of leading industrialised countries, Trump said.
“It will be solved, you can bet on that,” he said before going into closed-door talks with Abe.
Abe intended to use the summit to underscore the danger posed by the unpredictable regime in North Korea following its recent series of missile tests.
“North Korea is a grave threat not only to East Asia but also to the world,” he told reporters, urging the G7 to act “resolutely”.
Pyongyang has launched a series of missiles this year, including a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range projectile this month, which the North claimed was capable of carrying a “heavy” nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington.
It carried out two atomic tests last year, insisting it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion.
The US is worried that if Kim is not stopped, other countries in the region, including Japan and South Korea, would be compelled to seek their own nuclear capability as a defence measure.
Washington says it is willing to enter into talks with North Korea if it halts its nuclear and missile tests, but it has also warned that military intervention was an option.
In an April telephone conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Trump said “we can’t let a madman with nuclear weapons on the loose like that”. – AFP