No solution in sight for N. Korea disputes

Missile launch highlights rift between U.S. and China on handling Kim Jong Un

BEIJING — The Trump administration has called for “global action” on North Korea, but as concern about Tuesday’s missile test and its aftermath deepens, the world’s biggest players — the United States and China — are at odds about what to do next.

Tuesday’s launch was a display of the North’s longest-reaching weapon yet — an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range that experts say covers Alaska.

Before his inauguration, President Donald Trump said North Korea’s plan to develop an ICBM capable of hitting the United States “won’t happen,” and he has since repeatedly talked tough. His main strategy to stop it counted on help from China, the financial lifeline for North Korea.

But with the risk of armed conflict rising and Kim Jong Un taunting him, Trump must now craft a new strategy.

After Tuesday’s test, China and Russia issued a joint statement condemning North Korea and calling for what they called a “double suspension,” a plan under which the United States and South Korea would suspend joint military exercises and North Korea would suspend weapons testing.

But by early Wednesday, Asia time, U.S. and South Korean forces were firing missiles of their own, conducting joint military exercises that U.S. Pacific Command cast as a show of “ironclad” resolve — but seemed sure to rile Beijing.

Trump then took to Twitter, appearing to blame China for failing to tighten the economic noose. “Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter. So much for China working with us — but we had to give it a try,” he tweeted.

Chinese data released in April showed China’s trade with the North grew 37.4 percent during the first three months of the year compared with the same period in 2016. China said then that overall trade grew even as it complied with U.N. sanctions and stopped buying North Korean coal.

Trump’s annoyance with China makes it even less likely he would consider the Beijing-Moscow plan, analysts said.

Daniel Pinkston, a lecturer in international relations at Troy University in Seoul, said he saw no chance the United States and South Korea would agree to halt joint exercises, especially after the North’s latest missile test. “It’s a nonstarter; it’s just not going to happen,” he said.

Deng Yuwen, a Beijingbased expert on North Korea, sees a growing divide between the positions of the United States, South Korea and Japan, on one hand, and China and Russia on the other.

“Two opposing blocs have been formed,” he said.

The missile the Kim regime launched Tuesday had been in the works for years. It flew higher and remained in the air longer than previous attempts, in what experts called a milestone for North Korea.

South Korean authorities described the North’s test as a two-stage missile with a range of 4,300 to 5,000 miles — enough to reach Alaska.

South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo said there is high probability that Pyongyang will stage another nuclear test. He also noted gains in its efforts to miniaturize a warhead — both steps toward developing nuclear-tipped weapons capable of hitting the mainland United States.

North Korean state media carried gleeful descriptions of the test. Official accounts had Kim “feasting his eyes” on the ICBM.

“With a broad smile on his face,” he urged scientists to send more “big and small ‘gift packages’” to the Americans, according to North Korea’s state press.

Kim was quoted as saying that the “protracted showdown with the U.S. imperialists has reached its final phase.”

On the other side of the fortified line separating the two Koreas since the 1950s, senior U.S. and South Korean military officials warned that North Korea’s actions threatened peace.

“Self-restraint, which is a choice, is all that separates armistice and war,” said Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, and Gen. Lee Sun-jin, chairman of the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a joint statement.

Trump hoped to head off all these problems. He has focused his efforts on getting Beijing to pressure Pyongyang.

The plan took shape during talks in April with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago, where the leaders appeared to put aside differences in the name of cooperation on North Korea and trade.