‘Clock has run out’ on North Korea warns White House as Trump’s Mar-a-Lago summit with China’s Xi Jinping to be dominated by crisis over Kim
White House is increasingly concerned at Kim Jong-un’s rogue regime’s pursuit of ballistic nuclear weapons
Trump and Xi will huddle Thursday and Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, a venue chosen to give the summit a more informal feel
At a White House business forum Tuesday, Trump called North Korea a ‘humanity problem’
Latest missile launch by the hermit state comes a day before Chinese president’s arrival
DailyMail.com
5 April 2017
The White House is talking in more urgent terms about North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, as President Donald Trump’s talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping approach.
One senior administration official warned that the ‘clock has now run out’ on Pyongyang.
Trump and Xi will huddle Thursday and Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, a venue chosen to give the summit a more informal feel. White House officials said Tuesday that trade and security would be high on the new American president’s agenda, including pushing China to exert more economic pressure on North Korea.
Speaking at a White House business forum Tuesday, Trump called North Korea a ‘humanity problem.’
A White House official later said ‘all options are on the table’ for the U.S., though the official would not say what steps Trump was willing to take to curb Pyongyang’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the waters off its east coast on Wednesday, U.S. and South Korean officials said, in a reminder of the simmering tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Like many nations, China is still grappling with Trump’s mercurial nature after the relative transparency and predictability of the bilateral relationship under Barack Obama. Both during his campaign and after his victory, Trump complained repeatedly about China’s allegedly unfair trade practices, its perceived lack of assistance in reining in North Korea and its drive to cement control over the South China Sea.
Some analysts believe Xi might be willing to hand Trump a symbolic victory on trade to put a positive spin on the meeting.
‘Xi probably can’t accommodate Trump on sovereignty and security issues, but he has a lot of leeway on economics,’ said Robert Sutter, a China expert at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
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