Trump will need more than rhetoric to deal with North Korea and China

Donald Kirk says while trade with China may not be the top issue for the new US president keen on destroying Obama’s legacy, Kim Jong-un is unlikely to give him time to consider his options

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Donald Trump or his administration may have trouble answering the blatant contradiction of wanting President Xi Jinping’s China to “help with North Korea” while blockading Chinese exports to the US. Photo: AP

Published: 2:01pm, 10 Jan 2017Updated: 8:06pm, 10 Jan 2017

Donald Trump faces a crisis in northeast Asia that’s likely to test his willpower far beyond the rhetoric that he’s been spewing for months. Quite soon we may learn how much he can really do to stymie the threat of North Korean posturing, and deal with America’s yawning trade deficit with China.

That’s a tall order, involving two seemingly different but closely related issues. The US president-elect may soon discover that he can’t have it both ways. If North Korean leader Kim Jong-un orders a test of a long-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the United States, how can or will Trump stop him?

Watch: Reactions to North Korea’s claim on missile test

After Kim indicated a test was imminent, Trump famously tweeted: “It won’t happen” – but nobody’s certain what he meant.

Was he saying that Korean scientists and technicians still do not have the finesse to fix a warhead to a missile, much less direct it to a target? Or was he hinting that he might order a strike on the launch pad before such a missile got off the ground?

Those are questions with which Trump will be grappling, almost from the moment he sits down in the Oval Office of the White House. He will also have to consider China’s relationships with North and South Korea – and with the US. He has already upset Beijing by tweeting, “China won’t help with North Korea” while “taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the US in totally one-sided trade….” Rubbing it in with sardonic understatement, he added: “Nice.”

Donald Trump slams China for not helping contain North Korea’s nuclear ambitions

These tweets are refreshing as clues to Trump’s thinking, without going into lengthy statements through lower-level officials. No other national leader has resorted to that system of modern electronic communication. In a few words, he’s able to communicate directly with masses of people.

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