A Trump tweet last month said North Korea was behaving badly.
Now analysts say these satellite
pictures of its nuclear test site indicate that test number
six is now imminent. Since January,
North Korea's been test-firing long-range missiles.
One great unknown is how close it now is to being able to stick a nuke
on a rocket. The other is how to stop
the erratic, recalcitrant ruler of the world's most belligerent
country from careering lemming-like towards
nuclear holocaust. Trump's claim that he can,
with or without Chinese help, was less a threat to North Korea
and more an ultimatum to China. China has great influence over North
Korea and China will either decide to help us with North Korea or they
will not. If they do that will be good for China and if they don't, it
won't be good for anyone. If China is not going to solve North Korea,
we will. That is all I am telling you.
Last month, when his Secretary of State met President Xi
in Beijing, Rex Tillerson declared that the era of strategic
patience was over. Trump is now escalating his coercion
of China before his Xi Jinping summit on Thursday.
Asked by the FT if he meant he'd go it alone,
Trump said, totally. We are going to see President Trump
beach... Just yesterday though,
his Ambassador to the UN made clear that unilateralism
wasn't the game plan. What should we do about North Korea?
No longer take excuses from China they are concerned. They need to
show us how concerned they are and put pressure on North Korea. The
only country that can stop North Korea is China.
China keeps the Pyongyang regime running.
Beijing worries that too much pressure could lead
to conflict or regime collapse - both potentially catastrophic.
China still favours dialogue and cautiously
using its leverage. Nothing, so far, has worked.
Attempting regime change could be disastrous.
America plans to deploy a missile defence system
to protect South Korea, but that has irked Beijing a lot.
Meanwhile, combined military exercises involving US,
South Korean and Japanese troops have irked the paranoid
Pyongyang regime even more. A North Korean minister condemned
the war games and promised that Pyongyang would "mercilessly smash
and annihilate" its enemies and reduce the American
imperialists to ruins. As the Donald J Trump
regime seeks to define its policy towards that
of the young Kim Jong-un, none of the options is good.
Trump's projection of hard power has made China nervous
and with the stakes so high, he cannot afford to alienate
President Xi, Marshal Kim's only friend in the world.
Jonathan Miller reporting. Well Donald Trump has been
appearing before the media at the White House this afternoon.
Our Washington correspondent Kylie Morris joins me now.
It is a big week for diplomacy here but to say it is important to see
the comments on North Korea in the context of his meeting with the
president of China at the end of the week. President Trump is doing
diplomacy in the way he does business, he is the deal-maker,
starting with a belligerent statement and when it gets down to
it, softens his posture, which has been his approach so far. Unlike a
real estate deal this time he will be talking to the leader of a
strategic and economic superpower who is used to setting terms
himself. The final meeting in a big diplomacy week. King Abdullah of
Jordan is here this week. And today he welcomed the Egyptian President
al-Sisi, he used to be not welcome in this town, but suddenly Donald
Trump's oldest and dearest ally. President al-Sisi has been close to
me from the first time I met him. I met during the campaign and at that
point there were two of us and we met and hopefully we will a lot
more. It was a very long, it was supposed to be a brief meeting, and
we were with each other for a long period of time.
Finally making it to the White House after the coup he
led in 2013. The State Department last one criticises government for
failing to investigate abuses by security forces and contributing
they said to an environment of impunity. Today it is about security
and the fight against so-called Islamic State.
Thanks.
I am joined by Malcolm charmers. Is he being reckless or is this the
bold move that would break the cycle of non-diplomacy, diplomacy over
North Korea? The question of what
China will do has been central to North American policy for as long as
I remember and as long as I remember, American administrations
have found the costs of the war game is affordable.
Is he putting the pressure on China, sort this out or
I will? China has different
objectives from the US in relation to North Korea, China does not want
regime collapse. Therefore it is not prepared... It wants to put some
pressure on. It does not like what North Korea is doing. China has
sponsored more friendly North Korean leaders but in recent years, their
life expectancy has been short and China is running out of options,
like the Americans. We are joined
from Colorado by Christopher Hill.
The Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies
at the University of Denver The key question is, whether Donald
Trump is coming up with a bold move that will break the deadlock or
whether he is doing something reckless, wed EU stand on this
question? It is difficult to tell
whether he is going through the briefing book or saying what is on
his mind. He is making the point, look, we would like to work with
China. That statement was in there, but, if not, we will go it alone.
The key question is really what does he mean, go it alone? If he is
talking military options, we have the inconvenient fact 20 million
South Koreans live within artillery range of some 14,000 North Korean
artillery pieces. It is very true that all the war gaming suggests
there would be a lot of civilian casualties and if you went back
route you would have to work closely with the Republic of Korea and we
would not be going it alone. The more fruitful approach would be to
work with China and see if they could do more on sanctions and make
it clear that as long as there is a North Korean threat there will be US
missiles in South Korea, that the Chinese are upset about, but that is
tough, they will have to Axa that, as long as there is a North Korean
threat. The fundamental problem with China is they do not have consensus
on what to do in this situation. A lot of Chinese officials have
historical tie to North Korea and others don't and there is no
consensus. Is it also true China
would rather see a nuclear North Korea than a collapsed North Korea?
I think the Chinese have concerns about a collapsed North Korea and
worry if the US will put troops in the northern part of what we be a
unified peninsular. With the US put listening posts on the Chinese
border? A problem they have had with the missile system is the radar and
capability of looking into China, seeing various things going on in
China. They have concerns about what a unified Korea under a US ally
would mean. It behoves the Trump administration to reach some
understanding of what it would mean and not been because ultimately a
unified Korean peninsular is a better outcome than a nuclear North
Korea. You have Trump's rhetoric and the
Chinese upset about the change of balance and the North Koreans
throwing their toys out of the pram. It is very dangerous because the
longer the Americans delay, the worse the military options get and
North Korea is on a part in the next five to ten years of having probably
long-range missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads on the
cantonment of the United States itself and no American President can
look at that prospect with any sense of anything but trepidation.
Christopher Hill, is North Korea the issue that would keep you up more
than anything in the Middle East, or indeed Russia?
Yes, any time we talk nuclear weapons, that is really what
is problematic. Lord knows, we have concerns about terrorism from the
Middle East. Compared to what a North Korean missile strike against
the mainland of the US could mean, it is truly the issue. And I
completely agree with the proposition that it is getting
tougher and tougher and the closer they get to a deliverable nuclear
weapon, the more difficult it is to dissuade them from this. I am of the
view that this really should be number one.
Briefly and finally, is Trump the right man to deal with the
situation in the way he is dealing with it?
Well, I have problems with making fake threats and not having
any idea what that means or how that would play out. I think the Chinese
look at Donald Trump and they kind of like the idea of a stronger
leader, but they are very worried about a leader who does not normally
crack his briefing book and does not appear to have a lot of substantive
background to draw on. That is
pretty damning! Thank you very much.