Xi Jinping ‘very helpful’ on North Korea, says Donald Trump

The US and its allies are ‘making a lot of progress’ in dealing with nuclear-armed North Korea, Donald Trump says.

Melania Trump with South Korean and American children at the presidential Blue House in Seoul yesterday. Picture: AP

The US and its allies are “making a lot of progress” in dealing with the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea, US President ­Donald Trump said yesterday as he opened his two-day visit to South Korea.

After talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the ­official residence the Blue House in Seoul, Mr Trump also said ­Chinese President Xi Jinping has been ­“really, very very helpful” in dealing with North Korea.

“We hope that Russia likewise will be helpful,” he said a day ­before he heads to Beijing.

“North Korea is a worldwide threat that requires a worldwide action,” adding the US was prepared to use the full range of its military capabilities if necessary.

Time and again, Mr Trump has issued combative warnings to Pyongyang as he urged it to abandon its nuclear program. But as he began his visit he initially struck a more hopeful tone.

“It makes sense for North Korea to come to the table to make a deal that is good for the people of North Korea and the people of the world. I think we are making a lot of progress,” he said.

Mr Moon said earlier he hoped the US President’s visit will be an opportunity to resolve “anxiety” in the region over North Korea.

“I know that you have put this issue at the top of your security agenda,” he said.

“So I hope that your visit to Korea and to the Asia Pacific ­region will serve as an opportunity to relieve some of the anxiety that the Korean people have due to North Korea’s provocations and also serve as a turning point in ­resolving the North Korean ­nuclear issue.”

Mr Trump is the first US president in 25 years to make a state visit to South Korea, although critics there have pointed out that he is staying for a shorter time than with Japan or China.

His program featured addressing US and South Korean troops at Camp Humphreys, south of Seoul, the largest American base outside the US. It also featured a speech to the National Assembly and a state banquet.

Mr Trump did not plan to visit the DMZ, where he might have eyeballed North Korean soldiers dedicated to defending their ­“Supreme Leader” Kim Jong-un, whom he dubs the “Little Rocket Man”. The US President said that such a DMZ visit has become “a little bit of a cliche”.

American resolve and military capacity are being underlined during the tour of Asia by three US aircraft carrier groups conducting exercises within striking distance of North Korea.

South Korea’s chief goal has been to satisfy itself that Mr Trump won’t act summarily against the North, without consulting its allies including Mr Moon and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The liberal Mr Moon — whose chemistry with his US counterpart lacks the Trump-Abe bromance, or the Trump-Xi big two comradeship — will have taken some comfort, then, from Mr Trump’s respect for his country’s dire ­strategic plight.

Each destination on this nine-day visit to Asia is a minefield for Mr Trump, replete with risk. So negotiating two countries so far without a significant reverse, in ­itself marks a minor success. In China the risks and rewards are potentially even greater.

“There has never been an American president whose style, personality, and mindset were so perfectly suited to China’s preferred way of doing business. Trump is the China dream,” said American expert on the relationship with China James Mann.

The set pieces of the stay in ­Beijing are designed to place Mr Trump in the context of China’s vast, ancient civilisation and grandeur. A welcome at the massive, Soviet-style Great Hall of the ­People. A banquet in one of the 9999 rooms in the Forbidden City where emperors reigned for 500 years, decorated personally by the Qing era emperor Qianlong under whom China expanded its territory and achieved a golden age unsurpassed until, it may be hinted, today’s communist dynastic glory under Mr Xi himself.

A visit to the awe inspiring Great Wall of China, a metaphor used today for the party-state’s ­intense control of the Chinese ­internet, which is being transformed into an intranet.