Trump says China pressuring North Korea on missiles, nukes

Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea

President Donald Trump said in a television interview to be aired today that he believes China’s president has been putting pressure on North Korea as it pursues its missile and nuclear-weapons programs.

In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Trump said he won’t be happy if North Korea conducts a nuclear test and that he believes Chinese President Xi Jinping won’t be happy, either.

Asked if that means military action, Trump responded: “I don’t know. I mean, we’ll see.”

On Saturday, a North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters.

North Korean ballistic missile tests are banned by the United Nations because they’re seen as part of the North’s push for a nuclear-tipped missile that can hit the U.S. mainland. The latest test came as U.S. officials pivoted from a hard line to diplomacy at the U.N. in an effort to address what may be Washington’s most pressing foreign policy challenge.

North Korea didn’t immediately comment on the launch, though its state media Saturday reiterated the country’s goal of being able to strike the continental U.S.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, speaking after a meeting of Japan’s National Security Council, said the missile is believed to have traveled about 30 miles and fallen on an inland part of North Korea.

Moon Seong Mook, a South Korean analyst and former military official, says that the North would gain valuable knowledge even from failed launches as it continues to improve its technologies for missiles. The South Korean and Japanese assessments about Saturday’s launch indicate that the North fired the missile from a higher-than-normal angle to prevent it from flying too far, he said.

“They could be testing a variety of things, such as the thrust of the rocket engine or the separation of stages,” Moon said. “A failure is a failure, but that doesn’t mean the launch was meaningless.”

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry denounced the launch as an “obvious” violation of United Nations resolutions and the latest display of North Korea’s “belligerence and recklessness.”

The North routinely test-fires a variety of ballistic missiles, despite U.N. prohibitions, as part of its weapons development.