Trump says China tried but failed to help on North Korea

[webfact]

Trump says China tried but failed to help on North Korea

By Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the newly-built Dental Sanitary Goods Factory in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) June 20, 2017. KCNA/via REUTERS

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Chinese efforts to persuade North Korea to rein in its nuclear programme have failed, ratcheting up the rhetoric over the death of an American student who had been detained by Pyongyang.

 

Trump had held high hopes for greater cooperation from China to exert influence over North Korea, leaning heavily on Chinese President Xi Jinping for his assistance. The two leaders had a high-profile summit in Florida in April and Trump has frequently praised Xi and resisted criticizing Chinese trade practices.

 

"While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!" Trump wrote in a tweet.

 

It was unclear whether his remark represented a significant shift in his thinking in the U.S. struggle to stop North Korea's nuclear programme and its test launching of missiles or a change in U.S. policy towards China.

 

"I think the president is signalling some frustration, he’s signalling to others that he understands this isn’t working, and he’s trying to defend himself, or justify himself, by saying that at least they tried as opposed to others who didn’t even try," Christopher Hill, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, told MSNBC.

 

U.S.-CHINA DIALOGUE

 

The Trump statement about China was likely to increase pressure on Beijing ahead of a U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue on Wednesday.

 

The talks will pair U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis with China's top diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, and General Fang Fenghui, chief of state of the People’s Liberation Army.

 

The State Department says the dialogue will focus on ways to increase pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs, but also cover such areas as counter-terrorism and territorial rivalries in the strategic South China Sea.

 

The U.S. side is expected to press China to cooperate on a further toughening of international sanctions on North Korea. The United States and its allies would like to see an oil embargo and bans on the North Korean airline and guest workers among other moves, steps diplomats say have been resisted by China and Russia.

 

In a sign that U.S.-Chinese relations remain stable, a White House aide said Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, were invited by the Beijing government to visit China later this year.

 

Trump has hardened his rhetoric against North Korea following the death of Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who died on Monday in the United States after returning from captivity in North Korea in a coma.

 

'A DISGRACE'

 

In a White House meeting with visiting Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko, Trump criticized the way Warmbier's case was handled in the year since his arrest, appearing to assail both North Korea and his predecessor, U.S. President Barack Obama.

 

"What happened to Otto is a disgrace. And I spoke with his family. His family is incredible ... but he should have been brought home a long time ago," Trump said.

 

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States holds North Korea accountable for Warmbier's "unjust imprisonment" and urged Pyongyang to release three other Americans who are detained.

 

Trump's tweet about China took some advisers by surprise. A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had limited options to rein in North Korea without Chinese assistance.

 

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is less likely following Warmbier's death.

 

Spicer said Trump would be willing to meet Kim under the right conditions, but that, "clearly we're moving further away, not closer to those conditions."

 

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and David Alexander; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-06-21

[tonray]

Chinese Premier Tweets back:

 

"Trump tried but failed to help on Health Care"

[IMA_FARANG]

Will Trump "Fire him" from His job as he did on the show "The Apprentice"?

 

 

[Thakkar]

It's like when you subcontract a difficult job to a factory in China and they fail to deliver. It's usually because you overestimated their abilities and demanded more than they could realistically deliver. But the Chinese don't like to say "no" so they try.

 

It may have worked if Trump had stuck to just ordering ties from them.

 

Getting a paranoid autocrat to give up the only weapons he's convinced is keeping him in power? Who would've thought that that would be so complicated?

 

T

[boomerangutang]

China could allow N.Korean defectors free passage to S.Korea.  Instead, China sends the N.Koreans back - so they and their families can be tortured or killed. 

[tonray]

1 minute ago, boomerangutang said:

China could allow N.Korean defectors free passage to S.Korea.  Instead, China sends the N.Koreans back - so they and their families can be tortured or killed. 

Chinese officials also profit handsomely from a black market trade at the border, look the other way and get rich. Don't want to upset the apple cart.

[boomerangutang]

3 hours ago, tonray said:

Chinese officials also profit handsomely from a black market trade at the border, look the other way and get rich. Don't want to upset the apple cart.

                        If China allowed N.Korean defectors - unhindered travel to S.Korea, why would that interfere with black markets along the Yalu River? 

 

                    Here's a comparison which has different parameters, but also  has many of the same conditions. During the Cold War, when E.Germans escaped in to W.Germany, they weren't handed back to the East side.  Same if a member of a former East Bloc country escaped over the Iron Curtain, that person wasn't necessarily arrested and sent back.   I met a guy who was born in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War.  He snuck through the Iron Curtain and eventually got to the US and became a US citizen.  Good for him, that guards on the western side didn't arrest him and hand him back to his former Commie handlers.

 

                        Except the current situation between China and N.Korea is worse.  Any failed defector who is forced back to N.Korea gets thrown in prison and is lucky if he lives through the following months.  His family is also punished severely.

 

                      China is getting a free pass from the rest of the world on that issue, but China's policy is criminal and anti-humanitarian.  There's not one western leader or government which has the balls to stand up and call China out for its criminal policies - or perhaps western leaders aren't aware of it.  Speaking for Trump, he's too busy worrying about what type of golf balls to buy.

[Srikcir]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

"While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!"

Whatever happened to Trump's declaration made in April 2017: "Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, We will. That is all I am telling you,"

Will Trump withdraw his Grand Design from China in the form of not accepting China's trade imbalance with the US and reinstate China as a currency manipulator? Will Trump now take military action and/or cyber warefare against North Korea versus further economic sanctions used frequently by Obama?

I suspect Trump will instead waffle, blaming the US military and intelligence agencies for lack of a strategic approach. And walk away.

 

 

[kwilco]

ill amazed by Trump's handling of the Saudi/Qatar crisis....first he says it was him who set it up and now his foreign office want to tear it down....he seems to have a problem with making his mind up ... can't wait to see what he's got up his sleeve for Korea ..... some kind of award perhaps?

[khunken]

Asking China to help with getting N Korea to tone down it's belligerent attitude is one thing but expecting China to persuade N Korea to get rid of its nuclear weapons is nothing but wishful thinking.

 

In addition, if Trump wants help from China he is going to have to offer something in return. As least he should have listened to China when it has made clear on numerous occasions that the war games with S Korea close to the border were the main reason that N Korea wouldn't stop it's missile launching and further develop it's nuclear capability.

 

Ever since dubya's 'Axis of evil' the US's handling of N Korea has been to make things worse, using nothing but finger pointing & threats with predictable results. If the US can negotiate the release of a convicted & very ill citizen via back-channels, why not try negotiating a less warmongering attitude for starters (from both sides) and give the new S Korea government some breathing space.

 

 

[Srikcir]

3 minutes ago, khunken said:

why not try negotiating a less warmongering attitude for starters

The Obama administration's efforts secured the release of at least 10 other Americans from North Korea - and the aggressive behavior of North Korea did not change. Trump avoids Patient Diplomacy and gets back a brain-dead American. What's left for less warmongering attitude?

[khunken]

9 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

The Obama administration's efforts secured the release of at least 10 other Americans from North Korea - and the aggressive behavior of North Korea did not change. Trump avoids Patient Diplomacy and gets back a brain-dead American. What's left for less warmongering attitude?

If you bothered to read the rest of what I said, getting N Korea to release Americans has nothing to do with changing N korea's attitude to the US. It's using some sort of diplomacy, preferably with Chinese involvement, that just might work as it hasn't been tried since 2001.

I don't appreciate out of context use of my post to form a half-baked reply.

[midas]

3 hours ago, Srikcir said:

The Obama administration's efforts secured the release of at least 10 other Americans from North Korea - and the aggressive behavior of North Korea did not change. Trump avoids Patient Diplomacy and gets back a brain-dead American. What's left for less warmongering attitude?

How about beginning with being allowed the same rights to develop and hold weapons to defend itself as USA's major ally in the Middle East?

[Redline]

3 hours ago, kwilco said:

ill amazed by Trump's handling of the Saudi/Qatar crisis....first he says it was him who set it up and now his foreign office want to tear it down....he seems to have a problem with making his mind up ... can't wait to see what he's got up his sleeve for Korea ..... some kind of award perhaps?

Exactly.  He said he started the Qatar issue.  I'm sure he had no idea the US had an important military base there, considering he doesn't read or listen.  He's going to go play golf in North Korea

[kwilco]

I just can't understand how someone who is clearly mentally ill can be allowed to remain in the Whitehouse.

[Skywalker69]

 

[YetAnother]

A meeting between Trump and Kim ?

I don't think that's a good idea