China key in bringing North Korea back to negotiating table
Experts say US air strike against Syria may have boosted Trump’s bargaining power with Xi
China is facing the urgent task of engaging North Korea and bringing it back to the negotiating table with the United States to resolve Pyongyang’s nuclear crisis following initial talks between the Chinese and US leaders, observers say.
No breakthrough in dealing with Pyongyang’s nuclear development programme, an issue that was expected to dominate discussions in the first face-to-face meeting between President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, was reported after the summit.
Even though the two nations agreed on the need for to remove nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the meeting that “there was no kind of a package arrangement discussed” to resolve Pyongyang’s growing nuclear threat.
“President Trump indicated to President Xi ... that we would be happy to work with them, but we understand it creates unique problems for them and challenges and that we would, and are, prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us,” Tillerson said.
It is the second time Tillerson hinted that the US would take tough actions against Pyongyang. In March, he said the US could launch a “pre-emptive” military strike.
