Trump: China seeking to meddle in US elections
POMPEO SAYS OFFICIALS LAYING GROUNDWORK FOR THE NEXT US-NORTH KOREA SUMMIT
United States President Donald Trump accused China of seeking to meddle in the November 6 congressional elections yesterday, saying Beijing did not want his Republican Party to do well because of his stance on trade.
“China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election, coming up in November. Against my administration,” Trump told a UN Security Council meeting whose ostensible subject was on nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction and Iran.
Trump did not provide any evidence for the allegation. China did not immediately respond to the remarks by Trump, who was chairing the Council meeting.
“They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade and we are winning on trade, we are winning at every level. We don’t want them to meddle or interfere in our upcoming election,” Trump said.
Trump himself is not up for re-election until 2020 but November’s voting will decide whether his Republican party can keep control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
President Donald Trump yesterday said the United States and North Korea have “a wonderful relationship going” and that he would be announcing the timing and location of his next meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the “very near future.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said officials were laying the groundwork for the next summit, but any meeting would likely occur after October.
Trump, speaking to reporters as he was entering the United Nations, said: “I’ll be meeting with Chairman Kim in the very near future. It’ll be announced. We’re having a press conference today. We’ll start talking about that. But we’ll be announcing where and when in the very near future.”
Asked what North Korea had to do before his next meeting with Kim, Trump said the two had made “a tremendous amount of progress” since last year. “They’re denuclearising North Korea. We have a wonderful relationship going between our country and them,” he said.
Pompeo said in an interview with CBS This Morning that US officials were “working diligently to make sure we get the conditions right so that we can accomplish as much as possible during the summit. But we hope it will be soon. “It may happen in October but more likely sometime after that.”
Trump held an unprecedented summit with Kim in Singapore on June 12 that yielded a broad pledge by Kim to “work toward” denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
Actions falling far short
Kim’s commitments and actions, however, have fallen far short of Washington’s demands for an inventory of North Korea’s weapons programmes and steps to give up a nuclear arsenal.
In his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump praised Kim for his courage in taking steps to disarm, but said much work still had to be done and sanctions must remain in place on North Korea until it denuclearises.
Yesterday, he told the UN Security Council that many positive things were happening behind the scenes on North Korea, “away from the media.”
“So I think you will have some very good news coming from North Korea in the coming months and years.”
Trump said Kim had reaffirmed his commitment to complete denuclearisation to him directly in a “very strong letter form.” “I think we will make a deal,” he said.