North Korea will not negotiate with Donald Trump if the US relies on China to cooperate as its only strategy against the rogue state.
Aaron Connelly of the Lowy Institute for International Policy told CNBC News that China’s help against Kim Jong-un is becoming more unlikely as Xi Jinping fails to comply with UN sanctions.
The Research Fellow in the East Asia Programme of the Lowy Insitute said: “For years the US administrations have assumed that if they can just get China to play ball on North Korea to cut off oil imports or coal exports then North Korea will come to heal and they would have a more pliable negotiating partner in North Korea.
“But it’s become clear to administration after administration, to the Bush administration and the Obama administration, and I think to the Trump administration, that China will go so far in terms of pressuring North Korea and the relationship between North Korea and Beijing was not good.
“But they ultimately won’t cut off all economic aid or trade with North Korea.
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“If that’s the only element of US administration’s strategy in getting North Korea to come to the negotiating table and play ball in terms of nuclear negotiations, it’s not going to work. That’s becoming increasingly clear to people in the Trump administration in Washington.”
In his televised New Year’s speech, Kim Jong-un threatened the US saying he is ready to defend his country if he feels it is necessary.
He said: “The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons and a nuclear button is always on my desk.
“This is a reality, not a threat.”
The dictator also declared that North Korea had reached full nuclear force in 2017 and called for the mass-production of nukes and missiles in the year ahead as tensions continue to rise with the US.
He said: “We achieved the goal of completing our state nuclear force in 2017.
”We need to mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles and accelerate their deployment.”