Beijing Review

Program. What do you think of Trump’s intention? What options does Washington have related to denucleari­zation of the Korean Peninsula?

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If Trump means military action, everybody seems to think he is bluffing. The United States cannot act alone; it has to have the agreement of both Tokyo and Seoul. If the U.S. Government said it was going to act alone on North Korea without consulting its allies, Tokyo and Seoul, that would be a bad thing. So, it is likely not the case. The Carl Vinson Strike Group has been sailing in waters near the Korean Peninsula, but this isn’t really significan­t in solving the issue.

But if it’s diplomatic action that the United States is going to take, such as talks directly with North Korea, that will be great. For the United States and North Korea to have one-to-one talks, China will certainly welcome that. Everybody will because that is probably the only way to really solve the problem. And our organizati­on will also support that.

North Korea is making meaningful progress. Their missile program is slow, but such technologi­es are not hard to develop. Although the last test failed, North Korea now has medium-range missiles that they could use to strike U.S. bases in Okinawa and mainland Japan. I think it is very unlikely that North Korea will use nuclear weapons against South Korea because they can destroy Seoul with convention­al artillery.

North Korea has not demonstrat­ed

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