Obama meets Xi Jinping; North Korea solution eludes Trump

Chinese President Xi Jinping today met his former US counterpart Barack Obama amid the escalating tensions after North Korea fired a long range ballistic missile capable of hitting anywhere in America.

In his talks with Obama, Xi stressed that China and the US had an important responsibility to safeguard world peace and stability, as well as boost global development and prosperity. Xi briefed Obama on the major outcomes of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held last month. The CPC endorsed a second five-year term for Xi and amended its constitution to add the 64-year-old leader's name and ideology, elevating him on a par with party founder Mao Zedong and his successor Deng Xiaoping.

They called for enhanced communication, exchanges and cooperation between China and the US. Xi made a positive appraisal of Obama's efforts in promoting China-US relations during his presidency, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. A long-term, stable and healthy development of Sino-US ties accords with the interests of both nations and the world, Xi said. China is ready to work with the US to strengthen communication, exchanges and cooperation, so as to push for new development of bilateral relations, he said. Obama, who is currently on a visit to China, India and France, thanked Xi and appreciated China's development achievements, the report said.

Earlier, Xi held telephonic talks with US President Donald Trump and discussed the situation arising from North Korea's firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) yesterday which splashed down in the Sea of Japan, shattering a two-month calm in Northeast Asia. Trump spoke to Xi yesterday, urging him to use "all available levers" to convince North Korea to end its provocations and return to the path of denuclearisation.
China is North Korea's only major ally and biggest trading partner.

In response to Trump's demands, Beijing has backed increasingly tough UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea to convince it to return to talks. The official Korean Central News Agency said yesterday that Kim, who personally signed off on the launch, "declared with pride that now we have finally realised the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force, the cause of building a rocket power".

Trump rejects China's efforts as ineffective: 

U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed a Chinese diplomatic effort to rein in North Korea's weapons program as a failure on Thursday, while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Beijing should do more to limit oil supplies to Pyongyang. In a tweet, Trump delivered another insulting barb against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who he called "Little Rocket Man" and a "sick puppy" after North Korea test-fired its most advanced missile to date on Wednesday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Washington's approach was dangerously provocative.

"The Chinese envoy, who just returned from North Korea, seems to have had no impact on Little Rocket Man," Trump said on Twitter, a day after speaking with Chinese President Chinese President Xi Jinping and reiterating his call for Beijing to use its leverage against North Korea. Separately on Thursday, Tillerson welcomed Chinese efforts on North Korea, but said Beijing could do more to limit its oil exports to the country.
"The Chinese are doing a lot. We do think they could do more with the oil. We're really asking them to please restrain more of the oil, not cut it off completely," Tillerson said at the State Department. China is North Korea's neighbor and its sole major trading partner.

While Trump has been bellicose at times in rhetoric toward North Korea, Tillerson has persistently held out hopes for a return to dialogue if North Korea shows it is willing to give up its nuclear weapons program. However, Tillerson may not remain in his job long, with disagreements with Trump over North Korea being one factor. On Thursday, a senior Trump administration official said the White House had developed a plan to replace Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In spite of Trump's rhetoric and warnings that all options, including military ones, are on the table in dealing with North Korea, his administration has stressed it favors a diplomatic solution to the crisis, which stems from Pyongyang's pursuit of a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States.

Tensions have flared anew since North Korea said it had successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday in a "breakthrough" that put the U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons whose warheads could withstand re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere. Trump has pledged more sanctions in response to the latest test and, at an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting late Wednesday, the United States warned North Korea's leadership would be "utterly destroyed" if war were to break out. Lavrov pointed to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises planned for December and accused the United States of trying to provoke Kim into "flying off the handle" over his missile program to hand Washington a pretext to destroy his country.

He also flatly rejected a U.S. call to cut ties with Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile program, calling U.S. policy toward North Korea deeply flawed. In a call with Trump on Thursday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the missile launched this week was North Korea's most advanced so far, but it was unclear whether Pyongyang had the technology to miniaturize a nuclear warhead and it still needed to prove other things, such as its re-entry technology. A White House statement said Trump and Moon reiterated their strong commitment to enhancing the deterrence and defense capabilities of the U.S.-South Korea alliance and added: "Both leaders reaffirmed their strong commitment to compelling North Korea to return to the path of denuclearization at any cost."