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Trump: US will act alone on N. Korea if needed
President Trump says he's willing to go it alone to restrain N. Korea's nuke program, if China won't help
Trump: US will act unilaterally on North Korea if necessary
Story highlights
- Trump has said China could end the North Korean nuclear threat
- His administration has made solving the problem a top priority
Washington (CNN)US
President Donald Trump has declared he would be willing to go it alone
to restrain North Korea's nuclear weapons program should China fail to
change the situation, saying if Beijing won't help solve it, then "we
will" alone.
"China will either decide to help us with North Korea or they won't," Trump said in an interview published Sunday in the Financial Times. "If they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don't, it won't be good for anyone."
China & North Korea: A complicated relationship 01:13
Trump's
administration has repeatedly emphasized its high concern over the
North Korean nuclear threat. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited
China last month to press North Korea's neighbor for help in mitigating that threat, and Trump is scheduled to host Chinese President Xi Jinping this week in the US, where he intends to bring the issue up.
China
didn't respond to Trump's comments to the FT Monday, but issued a
statement saying that Tillerson had phoned the country's top diplomat,
State Councilor Yang Jiechi, about Xi's visit.
According
to the statement, Yang said the meeting was of "utmost importance in
China-US relations" and was important for "promoting peace, stability
and prosperity... for the whole world."
China to US: Be 'cool-headed' on North Korea 02:38
On
the campaign trail and since taking office, Trump has argued China is
responsible for the continued nuclear proliferation in North Korea. He
said in his Financial Times interview that he planned to talk with Xi
about that situation and use trade as "the incentive" to talk China into
fixing it.
Trump has repeatedly
said he would take aggressive action against China to reduce the US
trade deficit with the country. But if the talks with Xi don't produce
Trump's desired result of getting Beijing to solve the North Korean
nuclear problem, Trump said the US would take action.
"If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will," Trump told the Financial Times.
Asked to clarify if he believed the US could solve the problem without China, Trump said: "totally."
In an interview with ABC News Sunday,
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the US should "no
longer take the excuses from China that 'they're concerned.'"
"They
need to show us how concerned they are... the only country that can
stop North Korea is China, and they know that," she said.
The
US maintains that China hasn't done enough to apply financial pressure
given that Beijing is North Korea's only real ally and accounts for 70% of the country's trade.
China
has repeatedly said that its influence over the North Korea has been
overstated, and the US and South Korea should stop antagonizing North
Korea with its annual military drills.
Thousands of US and South Korea troops are currently engaged in the Foal Eagle joint annual drills that finish on April 30.
"On
one hand, North Korea has violated UN Security Council resolutions
banning its ballistic missile launches; on the other hand, South Korea,
the US -- and now Japan -- insist on conducting super-large-scale
military drills. It's a vicious cycle that could spiral out of control
-- and such a scenario would benefit no one," Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a press briefing on March 14.
One thing to know about North Korea's missiles 01:03
Beijing
has proposed a "double halt" approach that would see North Korea
suspend its nuclear program, while the US and South Korea would call off
joint military drills.
The US has already dismissed the plan. In a briefing on March 9,
Mark Toner, the acting State Department spokesman, said: "There's no
equivalence between North Korea's illegal missile and nuclear activities
and what is our lawful, longstanding joint security exercises with our
allies in the region."
North Korean
state media has slammed the drills, accusing the countries in a report
dated March 12 of "becoming more reckless as the days go by."
On
Monday, the US, South Korea and Japan announced a new round of
exercises from April 3-5. South Korean Defense Ministry Spokesman Moon
Sang-gyun said drills were planned "to show a strong resolve to counter
North Korea's nuclear and missile threats as North Korea has been
steadily improving its submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM)
capabilities."
North Korea has
test-fired a number of missiles this year and in recent weeks has tested
engines which analysts said could be used to power long-range weapons.
Last September, Pyongyang claimed to have tested
a nuclear warhead, with South Korea's weather service estimating the
explosion to have about 10 kilotons of power, or about two-thirds the
power of the bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima in World War II.
Speaking in South Korea last month, Tillerson warned that the US would leave the option of military action on the table with regard to North Korea.
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