Trump: China shifts on N. Korea

Nuclear weapons freeze insufficient for concessions

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. and China agree that North Korea cannot just freeze its nuclear weapons program in exchange for concessions and that it must eliminate its arsenal.

Trump was restating a U.S. position but suggested that China now concurred with Washington that a “freeze-for-freeze” agreement was unacceptable.

China and Russia have proposed that as a way to restart talks the North could freeze its nuclear and missile programs in exchange for the U.S. and its ally South Korea stopping regular military drills that Pyongyang considers as preparation for invasion.

China said Wednesday that it would send a high-level special envoy to North Korea amid a chill in relations between the neighbors.

Trump was speaking a day after he returned from his 12-day trip through Asia, which included a state visit to China, where he was hosted by President Xi Jinping.

“President Xi recognizes that a nuclear North Korea is a grave threat to China, and we agreed that we would not accept a so-called freeze for freeze agreement, like those that have consistently failed in the past,” Trump said.

He said that Xi pledged to implement U.N. sanctions that aim to deprive North Korea of revenues for its weapons programs “and to use his great economic influence over the regime to achieve our common goal of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.”

Speaking at the White House, Trump cast his Asian sojourn as a “tremendous success,” saying the United States was feted by foreign leaders and asserted its strength in the world.

“America’s renewed confidence and standing in the world has never been stronger than it is right now,” Trump said, detailing his stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Earlier, Trump used social media to spar with media coverage of his trip.

He tweeted criticism at The New York Times. He said the paper “hates” that he has good relationships with world leaders and “they should realize that these relationships are a good thing, not a bad thing.”

The president also tweeted Wednesday that he was “forced” to watch CNN during the trip and “again realized how bad, and FAKE, it is.”