President Trump said that he is confident in Chinese President Xi Jinping's ability to stop North Korea from following through with its imminent threat to carry out another nuclear test. However, the president said that there had been "some very unusual moves have been made over the last two or three hours" by the North Koreans.
South Korean media sources are reporting that: "The U.S. Air Force dispatched a nuclear sniffer aircraft Thursday to the east of the Korean Peninsula amid the possibility of North Korea's imminent nuclear test... It arrived at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, early this month amid indications that the North is preparing for another nuclear test... There was an unconfirmed rumor that North Korea has notified China of its nuclear experiment plan."
"All of the pundits out there have said they've never seen China work like they are working right now," the president said about Xi's efforts to contain North Korea's nuclear program. "I really have confidence that the president will try very hard. We don't know whether or not they're able to do that, but I have absolute confidence that he will be trying very, very hard."
The president explained his conversation with the Chinese President at last month's Chocolate Cake Summit in Palm Beach: "I actually told him, I said, 'You'll make a much better deal on trade if you get rid of this menace or do something about the menace of North Korea.' Because that's what it is, it's a menace."
As far as North Korea's concerned, we are in very good shape and we're building our military rapidly. A lot of things have happened over the last short period of time.
I've been here for approximately 91 days. We're doing a lot of work. We're in very good position.
We're going to see what happens.
I can't ask your -- answer your question on stability. I hope the answer is a positive one, not a negative one.
But hopefully that will be something that gets taken care of.
I have great respect for the president of China. As you know, we had a great summit in Florida, in Palm Beach, and got to know each other, and I think like each other. I can say from my standpoint, I liked him very much, I respect him very much.
And I think he's working very hard. I can say that all of the pundits out there are saying they never have seen China work like they're working right now. Many coal ships have sent back, many other things have happened. Some very unusual moves have been made over the last two or three hours. And I really have confidence that the president will try very hard. We don't know whether or not they're able to do that, but I have absolute confidence that he will be trying very, very hard.
And one of the reasons that we're talking about trade deals and we're talking about all of the different things, but we're slowing up a little bit -- I actually told him, I said, 'You'll make a much better deal on trade if you get rid of this menace or do something about the menace of North Korea.' Because that's what it is, it's a menace right now.
