During Monday’s debate, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sounded a lot like Defense Secretary Ash Carter, using bellicose language to call for a increased Chinese role in resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis.
“I think that once the nuclear alternative happens, it’s over,” Trump said. “I can’t take anything off the table. Because you look at some of these countries, you look at North Korea, we’re doing nothing there. China should solve that problem for us. China should go into North Korea.”
“China is totally powerful as it relates to North Korea,” Trump reiterated. Critiquing China for taking advantage of the U.S. has been a hallmark issue of the Trump campaign.
Carter, who has staked out more hawkish positions that much of the Obama administration, recently made similar remarks.
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“One other thing I would single out is the role of China. It’s China’s responsibility,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said earlier this month on North Korea. “China shares important responsibility for this development, and has the important responsibility to reverse it.”
Some watching on social media took Trump’s comments to be tantamount to calling for a Chinese invasion of the country, though Trump never used such language.
A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Geng Shuang, said Tuesday morning, “China has been making unremitting efforts with all sides concerned to achieve a proper resolution over the peninsular nuclear issue.”
Beijing also voiced objection Tuesday to any country using the law to carry out “long arm jurisdiction,” after the U.S. sanctioned a Chinese company allegedly tied to North Korea’s nuclear program.
Trump also argued that Iran should have to intercede in the North Korean matter, as a condition of the Iranian nuclear deal. He suggested Tehran and Pyongyang are allies. The full extent of that relationship is unclear, though some reports indicate ties between the two governments could run deep.
“Iran is one of their biggest trading partners. Iran has power over North Korea,” Trump added. “When they made that horrible deal with Iran, they should have included the fact that they do something with respect to North Korea. And they should have done something with respect to Yemen and all these other places.”
“Secretary Kerry, why didn’t you do that? Why didn’t you add other things into the deal?” Trump questioned.
The issue of North Korean proliferation has concerned the international community for decades, but concerns have heightened in 2016, with an uptick in nuclear tests, among other developments. Pyongyang has conducted two nuclear tests this year alone and six since 2006. The government claims it can put a nuclear warhead on a rocket and fire it at a potential adversary. The Pentagon cannot substantiate this but has said the U.S. should “take them at their word” for the sake of security.
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Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has criticized Trump for questioning some of the the United States’ traditional allegiances and defense treaties.
During the debate Clinton emphasized that she wanted “to reassure our allies in Japan and South Korea… that we have mutual defense treaties and we will honor them.”
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Donald Trump Suggests China, Iran Should Solve North Korean Crisis originally appeared on usnews.com
