Trump Threatens to Act Unilaterally Against North Korea

Pushes China to Help Pressure North Korea

In an effort to try to pressure China to agree to help the US in moves against North Korea, President Trump today insisted that China would either need to agree to assist the US or that the US would act unilaterally against the nation’s nuclear program.

The new interview, published today, saw Trump threatening to use trade as leverage against China to pressure them for cooperation. This comes just ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to the US to visit with Trump.

That was likely to point, with Trump trying to set the stage for tough negotiations with China. His estimation that China has “great influence” over North Korea and could quickly solve the nation’s nuclear program, however, is unclear.

China has been trying to get involved in the North Korea dispute in recent months, agreeing to cut off coal trade with the isolated nation as a concession to the US, but also trying to negotiate a deal where North Korea would scrap its nuclear program in return for the US ending its wargames simulating invasions of North Korea. The US, in that case, rejected the idea outright.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.