US attack on Syria casts shadow on North Korea

America’s new readiness to use military force will make a difference to policy stalemate with China

The dangerous situation in North Korea continued with no joint solution in mind after the wide-ranging summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump. The American attack on Syria coincided with Xi’s visit, which would have embarrassed him since China is closer to the Russian position on Syria, but after meeting Trump, Xi stuck to commenting about the virtues of cooperation and Trump insisted they had formed an outstanding relationship and made great progress.

Nonetheless, China and America have significant differences over North Korea. Diplomatic and economic measures taken to rein in North Korea’s missile programme have not succeeded, and Wednesday’s launch of a ballistic missile from North Korea’s east coast was timed with the Trump-Xi summit in mind, even if it was overshadowed by the Syrian attack.

Before the summit, Xi had already signalled that his administration was furious with the US commitment to deploy the advanced US anti-missile system, Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD), in South Korea. The Chinese government may well guess that the timing of the American strike was a hint that the next target for pre-emptive American military action might be North Korea. After all, Trump has reserved the right to take direct American action, and insists that all options are on the table when it comes to North Korea’s continued missile tests.

Trump has repeatedly said that he wants China to do more to exert its economic influence over North Korea, and China steadily denies that it has any significant influence on North Korea.

The new readiness of America to use military force has made a difference to that policy stalemate.