Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Trump, Chinese leader Xi discuss North Korea
Key U.S. allies split on strategy: talks vs. sanctions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump discussed North Korea’s strongest nuclear test yet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, as the U.S. proposed crippling new sanctions and world leaders tussled over whether pressure or dialogue was the best way to rein in the rogue nation.
The White House stressed the U.S. and Chinese leaders’ joint commitment to ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons. But differences were clear on how best to reach that remote goal as fears escalate over Pyongyang’s emerging capability to strike America with a nuclear-tipped missile.
China’s state news agency said Xi expressed China’s adamant position about “resolving the nuclear issue through talks.” Trump noted China’s “essential role” and pledged more communication with China “to find a solution as early as possible,” Xinhua reported.
But Trump projected an entirely different message in a phone call a day earlier with British Prime Minister Theresa May. The American leader declared “now is not the time to talk to North Korea,” according to a White House readout, released shortly before Trump’s call with Xi.
The conversations were part of a flurry of calls Trump has made to world leaders after North Korea’s test explosion this weekend of what it called a hydrogen bomb. Trump said the U.S. is considering all options to defend itself and allies.
While Washington needs backing from allies, cooperation with traditional adversaries China and Russia is more significant. The U.S. needs both to put the squeeze on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Both are economic partners of North Korea and veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
On Wednesday, the U.S. circulated a draft Security Council resolution that would ban all oil and natural gas exports to North Korea, potentially devastating its economy. The measure also would freeze all of the North’s and Kim’s foreign financial assets, and ban North Korean textiles exports. Countries also would be barred from hiring North Korean workers.
But Beijing and Moscow’s support for such tough action was doubtful.
“President Xi would like to do something,” Trump told reporters after a 45minute call with the Chinese leader.
As Trump looked to increase the pressure, Russian President Vladimir Putin pushed in the opposite direction, warning against cornering Pyongyang.
The North’s nuclear test “flagrantly violates” international law, Putin said, but he urged talks and not more sanctions.
“We should not give in to emotions and push Pyongyang into a corner,” Putin said after meeting the president of South Korea in Russia on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Trump’s military, diplomacy and intelligence chiefs briefed Congress on the North Korean threat and U.S. strategy. Democrats accused the administration of sending confusing signals to adversaries and allies.
“The message changes from day to day and for myself, I’m not quite sure what the policy is,” Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said. He said he learned nothing from the closed-doors briefing by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that he hadn’t already read in newspapers.