President Trump said Wednesday that he believes that China is feeling the brunt of his administration’s trade policy and that is what is causing them to work against the U.S. on North Korea.
“I think we are doing well with North Korea. We’ll have to see. I think part of the North Korean problem is caused by our trade disputes with China,” the president told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “China’s been taking out about $500 billion from the United States for many years and we can’t let that happen.”
The president and his administration are committed to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Trump met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in June in a historic summit in Singapore to engage North Korea and work out a path toward an agreement. In broad terms, Kim agreed to move towards denuclearization, but North Korea is showing no signs it is willing to unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons — a key ask of the Trump administration.
Diplomatic discussions between the U.S. and North Korea have fallen apart in recent weeks, highlighted by Trump’s decision last week to cancel Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to North Korea. Explaining his decision-making, the president publicly acknowledged for the first time that efforts to get North Korea to denuclearize have fallen off since his summit with Kim in June.
[Also read: Trump says China wants trade deal, but it’s ‘not the right time’]
“We have to straighten out our trade relationship, because too much money is being lost by us and, as you know, China is the route to North Korea. Ninety-three percent of the product and various things that go into North Korea go in through China,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.
“When I came into office, I purposely didn’t do much with respect to the trade on China because I wanted to see if we could do something about North Korea,” Trump said Wednesday. “I think China probably has a great influence over North Korea. I have a fantastic relationship with Chairman Kim, as you probably know. We are just going to have to see how it all ends up.”
Trump has blamed China previously for the lack of progress with North Korea and suggested, like he did Wednesday, that further negotiations could be held off until the administration works out a new trade agreement with China.
China is one of the largest trading partners with North Korea, accounting for roughly 90 percent of all trade. North Korea is increasingly looking to China for economic support, an effort the nation may hope will help it achieve economic reforms without having to acquiesce to America’s demands to denuclearize.
