Donald Trump warns ‘twisted’ North Korea he will no longer tolerate its campaign of ‘nuclear blackmail’
DONALD Trump tonight warned "twisted" North Korea that he will no longer tolerate what he called its campaign of "nuclear blackmail."
The President vowed to team up with powerful new ally China to pile "maximum pressure" on Kim Jong-un and his military.
"I made clear that we will not allow this twisted dictatorship to hold the world hostage to nuclear blackmail," Trump said after returning from his marathon trip to Asia.
Trump said Chinese leader Xi Jinping had pledged to use Beijing's economic leverage over Pyongyang to achieve denuclearisation in the North.
"President Xi recognises that North Korea is a great threat to China," the US leader said.
He also claimed the US and China now agree that Kim cannot just freeze his nuclear weapons programme stating he must eliminate its arsenal completely.
Trump was restating a long-standing US position but suggested that China now agreed with Washington that a "freeze-for-freeze" agreement was not on the table.
China and Russia have previously proposed that as a way to restart the long-stalled "peace"' talks.
They hoped the North could freeze its nuclear missile programmes in exchange for the US and South Korea halting the military drills Kim considers as preparation for invasion.
China said Wednesday that it would send a high-level special envoy to North Korea amid an extended chill in relations between the neighbours.
Trump was speaking a day after he returned from a 12-day trip through Asia that included a state visit to China, where he was hosted by President Xi Jinping.
Speaking at the White House, Trump cast his Asian trip as a "tremendous success," saying the United States was feted by foreign leaders and asserted its strength in the world.
"America's renewed confidence and standing in the world has never been stronger than it is right now," he said.
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