Less than a week after a historic North Korean missile test, the leaders of the United States and China pledged to work together to stop Kim Jong Un’s nuclear missile program.
“Something has to be done,” US President Donald Trump said during the brief public portion of a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Germany.
There will “eventually be a success” against Pyongyang, Trump said. “It may take longer than I’d like. It may take longer than you’d like. But there will be success in the end one way or the other.”
Xi told Trump that China remains “firmly committed to denuclearizing the (Korean) peninsula,” according to a report from China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
A solution on North Korea must come through dialogue and consultation involving the international community, Xi said.
Missile tested that could reach Alaska
Tensions between the US and North Korea spiked last week, when Pyongyang tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Analysts said the test showed the missile could reach much of the US state of Alaska.
The US and South Korea responded with military shows of force, including missile tests of their own and a practice bombing mission from US Air Force B-1 bombers, accompanied by South Korean warplanes.
The response ran counter to China’s repeated calls for North Korea’s to stop its missile and nuclear tests in exchange for the US and South Korea halting the joint military drills that antagonize the Kim regime.
As a longtime ally of North Korea and its top trading partner, China is seen by many — including the Trump administration — as the key to a solution on the Korean Peninsula.
While Trump has in the past praised what appeared to be China’s early efforts to exert pressure on its neighbor, he tweeted last month that those efforts had “not worked out.”
In remarks before their Hamburg meeting, Xi said “sensitive issues still exist” in the US-China relationship that “require a great amount of work.”
The leaders appear to have made at least some progress on those issues, according to messages conveyed after the meeting.
Trump tweeted they’d had an “excellent” exchange on trade and North Korea.
CNN
