Trump raps China over N. Korea

President says oil sales imperil ‘friendly solution’ on nukes

President Donald Trump warned Thursday that illicit Chinese oil sales to North Korea may jeopardize a “friendly solution” to the confrontation over North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

“Caught RED HANDED — very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!” Trump said on Twitter while at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla.

It was unclear if Trump’s admonishment of China was based on news reports or classified information he received from U.S. intelligence officials. There was no daily intelligence briefing on Trump’s public schedule Thursday. He is expected to return to Washington next week after spending the Christmas holiday and New Year’s Eve at his Florida resort.

The Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, reported Tuesday that U.S. spy satellites had observed Chinese vessels transferring oil to North Korean ships in the sea between the two countries about 30 times since October, citing unidentified South Korea government officials. Fox News summarized the Korean paper’s report on Wednesday.

The U.S. in September sought to persuade the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution banning oil exports to North Korea. That provision was dropped in the final document, which established limits on exports of petroleum products such as diesel but didn’t cut off crude oil sales. China supplies most of North Korea’s estimated 10,000 barrels a day of crude oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

China’s foreign ministry has defended its enforcement of U.N. sanctions against North Korea. A ministry spokesman said Wednesday that she had no information about the latest report but that China has strictly enforced trade restrictions.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that report. But in a commentary Thursday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Beijing to exert “decisive economic leverage” on Pyongyang.

“China has applied certain import bans and sanctions, but it could and should do more,” he wrote in The New York Times.

Ship-to-ship trade with North Korea at sea is prohibited under U.N. sanctions adopted Sept. 11. The latest sanctions adopted last week, in response to the test of a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile, also impose sharp reductions on imports of refined oil products by the isolated nation.

Last month, the Treasury Department sanctioned six North Korean shipping and trading companies and 20 of their vessels, and it published photos of what it said was a North Korean vessel on Oct. 19 possibly transferring oil to evade sanctions. The statement did not specify whether Chinese vessels were involved in the transfer. At that time, the U.S. also blacklisted four Chinese-based companies and one Chinese individual said to have deep commercial ties with North Korea.

Trump has blown hot and cold on China’s efforts on North Korea, which despite a dramatic increase in sanctions has made major progress this year on perfecting a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the United States.

On Dec. 15, Trump said Russia — another significant trading partner with North Korea — had failed to help, while China had.

“China is helping. Russia is not helping. We’d like to have Russia’s help — very important,” Trump told reporters after a phone conversation with President Vladimir Putin.

Also Thursday, Trump sought to remind the world that he’s long warned about the dangers posed by North Korea’s nuclear program.

He tweeted a compilation video that included edited footage of an interview he did with NBC’s Meet the Press nearly two decades ago.

In the interview, Trump said he’d be willing to launch a pre-emptive strike against North Korea if negotiating “like crazy” didn’t work. And he describes the country as “sort of wacko.”

Information for this article was contributed by Justin Sink of Bloomberg News; by Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times; and by Matthew Pennington and Catherine Lucey of The Associated Press.