Trump: China has to sort out North Korea ... or I will

DONALD Trump has threatened unilateral action against North Korea unless China takes steps to curb the rogue state’s nuclear threats.

‘ If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will,’ the US President said in an interview. ‘ That is all I am telling you.’

Mr Trump will have talks with Chinese president Xi Jinping in Florida this week where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s nuclear programme will be discussed.

‘China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t,’ Mr Trump told the Financial Times. ‘If they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don’t, it won’t be good for anyone.’

Predecessor Barack Obama had warned Mr Trump before he took office that Pyongyang’s progress in developing longrange nuclear weapons represented the most imminent threat to the US.

Mr Trump said he had ‘great respect’ for Xi and for China, adding: ‘I would not be at all surprised if we did something that would be very dramatic and good for both countries and I hope so.’

Asked what might motivate China to help, Mr Trump said: ‘I think trade is the incentive. It is all about trade.’

His comments come in the wake of warnings from Mr Obama’s last defence secretary, Ash Carter, who claimed that a preemptive strike by Mr Trump on North Korea would prompt the Communist nation to launch an invasion of South Korea. Mr Carter added that threats to attack North Korea and prevent it from building a nuclear weapon would trigger the most brutal conflict since the Korean War.

He said: ‘It’s quite possible that they [North Korea] would, as a consequence of that, launch an attempted invasion of South Korea. I’m confident of the outcome of that war, which would be the defeat of North Korea.

‘This is a war that would have an intensity of violence associated with it that we haven’t seen since the last Korean War.

‘Seoul is right there on the borders of the [demilitarised zone], so even though the outcome is certain, it is a very destructive war. And so one needs to proceed very carefully here.’

Mr Trump has ordered the National Security Council to review its options on North Korea, a review which has been accelerated ahead of the US-China summit, the FT reported.

The President claimed in the interview that he was prepared to demonstrate the country’s power.

‘I am not the United States of the past where we tell you where we are going to hit in the Middle East,’ he said. ‘Where they say “We will be attacking Mosul in four months”. A month later, “We will be attaching Mosul in three months, in two months, in one month”. And why are they talking? There is no reason to talk.

‘This isn’t an exercise. This is a very, very serious problem that we have in the world today. And we have more than one but this is no exercise. This is not just talk.

‘The United States has talked long enough and you see where it gets us, it gets us nowhere. Alliances have not always worked out very well for us.

‘But I do believe in alliances. I believe in relationships. And I believe in partnerships. But alliances have not always worked out very well for us.’

When Mr Trump was asked if his comments meant the US would deal with North Korea alone, the President added: ‘I don’t have to say any more. Totally.’

The White House has refused to rule out a pre-emptive strike and Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State, added that ‘all options are on the table’ over North Korea.

During a recent visit to Asia, Mr Tillerson sparked controversy when he said the Obama strategy of waiting for North Korea’s collapse was at an end.

Mr Trump’s deputy national security adviser Kathleen McFarland told the FT there was a ‘real possibility’ North Korea could be capable of hitting the US with a nuclear-armed missile by the end of Mr Trump’s first term.

Intelligence experts disagree and say North Korea’s ability to launch a nuclear missile is years further away.

‘All options are on the table’

‘ China will either decide to help us with North Korea or they won’t. If they do, that will be very good for China... if they don’t, it won’t ’ be good for anyone Donald Trump