IT WAS with trademark braggadocio that Donald Trump told the Financial Times, just days before meeting his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, that if China failed to “solve” the problem of North Korea’s nuclear programme, it was “totally” possible that America would do so alone. “China will either help us with North Korea, or they won’t,” said Mr Trump. “If they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don’t, it won’t be very good for anyone.” Mr Trump’s remarks came after the conclusion of a White House review of all the options available for dealing with what Barack Obama had warned would be the most urgent threat to national security under the new administration.
The review, led by Mr Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, has looked at everything from pre-emptive military action at one end of the scale to a continuation of Mr Obama’s policy of “strategic patience”. The latter amounted to some discreet disruption of North Korea’s missile launches through cyber-attacks and gentle cajoling of the Chinese to be a bit tougher over the implementation of various UN sanctions. Mr Obama does not claim to have...Continue reading
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