Trump: China has to sort out North Korea ... or I will

DONALD Trump has threatened unilateral action against North Korea unless China takes steps to curb the rogue state’s nuclear threats.

‘If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will,’ the US president said in an interview. ‘That is all I am telling you.’

Mr Trump will have talks with Chinese president Xi Jinping in Florida this week where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s nuclear programme will be discussed. ‘China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t,’ Mr Trump told the Financial Times.

‘If they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don’t, it won’t be good for anyone.’

Predecessor Barack Obama had warned Mr Trump before he took office that Pyongyang’s progress in developing longrange nuclear weapons represented the most imminent threat to the US.

Mr Trump said he had ‘great respect’ for Xi and 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.’

Asked what might motivate China to help, Mr Trump said: ‘I think trade is the incentive. It is all about trade.’

His comments come in the wake of warnings from Mr Obama’s last defence secretary, Ash Carter, who claimed that a pre-emptive strike by Mr Trump on North Korea would prompt the Communist nation to launch an invasion of South Korea.

Mr Carter added that threats to attack North Korea and prevent it from building a nuclear weapon would trigger the most brutal conflict since the Korean War.

Mr Trump has ordered the National Security Council to review its options on North Korea, a review which has been accelerated ahead of the US-China summit, the FT reported.

Mr Carter said: ‘It’s quite possible that they [North Korea] would, as a consequence of that, launch an attempted invasion of South Korea. I’m confident of the outcome of that war, which would be the defeat of North Korea. This is a war that would have an intensity of violence associated with it that we haven’t seen since the last Korean War.

‘Seoul is right there on the borders of the [demilitarised zone], so even though the outcome is certain, it is a very destructive war.

‘And so one needs to proceed very carefully here.’

When Mr Trump was asked whether his comments meant the US would deal with North Korea alone, the president added: ‘I don’t have to say any more. Totally.’

The White House has refused to rule out a pre-emptive strike and Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State, added that ‘all options are on the table’ when it came to North Korea.

During a recent visit to Asia, Mr Tillerson had sparked controversy when he said that the Obama administration’s strategy of waiting for North Korea’s collapse was at an end.

Mr Trump’s deputy national security adviser Kathleen McFarland told the FT there was a ‘real possibility’ North Korea could be capable of hitting the US with a nucleararmed missile by the end of Mr Trump’s first term.

Intelligence experts disagree with Mrs McFarland’s assessment and say North Korea’s ability to launch a nuclear missile is years further away.

Mr Trump has previously said he would be comfortable with an arms race and is seeking a 10 per cent increase in military spending in his first budget.

‘China will either decide to help us with North Korea or they won’t. If they do, that will be very good for China...if they don’t, it won’t be good for anyone’ Donald Trump