WMAL Interview - GORDON CHANG - 04.06.17

INTERVIEW - GORDON CHANG - author of "Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World" and Forbes contributor

PREVIEW: Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to Meet - TOP OF THE AGENDA: North Korea and Trade

Donald Trump warns China the US is ready to tackle North Korea. In an interview with the Financial Times, the US president said he would discuss the growing threat from Kim Jong Un’s nuclear programme with Xi Jinping when he hosts the Chinese president at his Florida resort this week, in their first meeting. “China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t,” Mr Trump said in the Oval Office. “If they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don’t, it won’t be good for anyone.” But he made clear that he would deal with North Korea with or without China’s help. Asked if he would consider a “grand bargain” — where China pressures Pyongyang in exchange for a guarantee that the US would later remove troops from the Korean peninsula — Mr Trump said: “Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.”

President Trump’s first face-to-face meeting today with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, will take place at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s family-owned resort in Florida.

The U.S.-China relationship has been under pressure over trade, North Korea and China’s expansion in the South China Sea.