Trump to China: ‘Be strong & tight’ on N. Korea border
WASHINGTON — Amid uncertainty over a planned U.S.-North Korea summit, President Donald Trump pushed Monday for China to continue “strong & tight” trade sanctions against Kim Jong Un’s regime until a possible accord over the North’s nuclear program.
“China must continue to be strong & tight on the Border of North Korea until a deal is made,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “The word is that recently the Border has become much more porous and more has been filtering in.”
Trump added: “I want this to happen, and North Korea to be VERY successful, but only after signing!”
Trump and Kim are scheduled to meet for their summit June 12 in Singapore.
But the plans remain clouded after Pyongyang threatened last week to cancel the summit, and the White House continued to assess the political risks for Trump if he falls short of a sweeping deal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
China is North Korea’s main trade partner, accounting for about 90 percent of trade with the isolated state, and its cooperation in enforcing economic sanctions is considered key to pressuring the country into an agreement.
Trump has long sought to convince China to work with the United States on a “maximum pressure” strategy of persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.
Inside the White House, there are mounting concerns that North Korea may back away from striking a deal on denuclearization and growing suspicions about the role the Chinese may be playing in complicating preparations for the Singapore summit.
An advance team from the United States has been in Singapore working out logistics and trying to nail down an itinerary, even as the national security adviser, John Bolton, and other top Trump aides privately have voiced pessimism that the summit will be successful.
On Saturday, Trump spoke to South Korean President Moon Jae-in for guidance in interpreting Kim’s harder-line position in the weeks since the two Korean leaders struck a positive tone during their landmark meeting.
Moon and Trump are scheduled to have a meeting Tuesday at the White House.
While Trump is blaming the North Korean leader for changing the scope of their summit talks, the view is different in South Korea, where many say the blame for the sudden problems in the diplomatic process lie squarely at the feet of someone else: Bolton.
“There are several land mines on the way to the summit between North Korea and the U.S.,” said Chung Dong-Young, who served as Unification Minister during the last progressive administration and is now a lawmaker.
“One of those land mines just exploded: John Bolton,” Chung told YTN Radio.
Woo Sang-ho, a lawmaker in Moon’s ruling Democratic Party, agreed.
“Bolton’s preposterous ‘Libya solution’ is a red light in North Korea’s summit talks with the U.S. and South Korea,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
Later this week, foreign journalists will be allowed to journey deep into the mountains of North Korea to observe the closing of the country’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site in a muchtouted display of goodwill before Kim and Trump’s planned summit.