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In reply to the discussion: I'm going to be in the minority here re NK but... [View all]karynnj
(59,504 posts)Last edited Sun Mar 19, 2017, 04:59 PM - Edit history (1)
just what Obama did. They are working with China to increase the pressure on NK to stop the provocations. Only China has real power to pressure NK via sanctions as they buy 70% of what they buy from China. Here is a January 2016 news report of Kerry visiting under somewhat similar circumstances.https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/world/asia/us-china-north-korea.html Here is the current NYT link for Tillerson - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/19/world/asia/rex-tillerson-xi-jinping-north-korea.html
The tone may be different. President Obama and Secretary Kerry had a far higher bar set for them by the media than Tillerson does - which oddly may respect that the media held them to higher standards because they were capable of it -- and there was not fear that they were completely over their heads.
Going back to January 2016, because it is history, we know what eventually happened. Here is the NYT from slightly over a month later. The US and China worked to toughen the sanctions on China. (Note that the NYT credits the State Department and the Tresury Secretary Lew -- rather than Kerry, who was very closely involved and had better than average relations with both Xi Jinping and Wang Yi( the FM) , having been the key person who negotiated the breakthrough US/China climate change pact. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/world/asia/north-korea-un-sanctions.html?_r=0 )
Let's hope that Tillerson has the success that Kerry/Lew/Obama et al had in early 2016. Clearly NK is testing the Trump administration - and it was not helpful that Trump opted to publicly call out China.