After a 12-day trip to Asia in which President Donald Trump stressed his friendship and mutual understanding with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing appears to have crossed Trump on a key issue: North Korea.
At every turn during his trip, Trump insisted that the US’s goal was North Korea’s denuclearization. He stressed the “grave threat” he said the rogue nuclear nation posed to millions in the region and around the world.
But China seems to have rejected the idea of denuclearization and instead wants the US to settle for a freeze in North Korea’s nuclear program in exchange for a freeze in the US’s military drills with South Korea.
On Wednesday, Trump said he and Xi “agreed that we would not accept a so-called freeze-for-freeze agreement like those that have consistently failed in the past.”
On Thursday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said a dual suspension, the Chinese’s preferred term for the “freeze-for-freeze” deal, was the “most feasible, fair, and sensible plan in the present situation.”
The difference of opinion has gone on for years, with China repeatedly suggesting the dual freeze and the US routinely rejecting it.
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— John Schindler (@20committee) November 16, 2017
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