Rogue Nation

President Trump Criticizes China as Meeting on North Korea Nears
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS

President Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, leaving the White House on Wednesday for a trip to Poland and Germany. 

WARSAW — President Trump criticized China on Wednesday for failing to do more to pressure North Korea on its nuclear program, suggesting as he prepares for a high-stakes meeting with Xi Jinping this week that he is re-evaluating the United States trade relationship with Beijing in light of the growing provocations from Pyongyang.
Mr. Trump vented his displeasure with China in a pair of early-morning tweets as he was departing on a trip to Warsaw, and to Hamburg, Germany, for the Group of 20 gathering of major world economies, where discussions about how to deal with the North Korean threat will be high on the agenda. 

He plans to hold meetings on the sidelines with Xi, as well as with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea.
“Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter,” Mr. Trump said in one of the tweets on Wednesday. 

“So much for China working with us — but we had to give it a try!”
A few minutes earlier, he suggested that American trade agreements should be contingent on such cooperation.

“The United States made some of the worst Trade Deals in world history,” he wrote. 

“Why should we continue these deals with countries that do not help us?”

It was not clear where Mr. Trump garnered his 40 percent figure for growth in overall trade between China and North Korea. 

A South Korean group, the Korea International Trade Association, said on Monday that North Korea had exported as much iron to China in the first five months of 2017 as it did in all of 2016.
But the group also said that North Korea’s exports of coal to China remained frozen. 

Coal is the North’s most valuable commodity, and China cut off its coal imports this year. 

China’s trade with the North grew 37.4 percent during the first three months of the year, compared with the same period in 2016, Chinese trade data released in April showed. 

China said the trade grew even as it stopped buying North Korean coal.
The meeting with Xi, with whom Mr. Trump developed a rapport during a getaway at his Mar-a-Lago estate in April, took on graver significance after North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile this week that the South’s defense minister said was capable of reaching Hawaii. 

Mr. Trump has said that he would never allow the North to develop such a capability, but his options for dealing with the threat are limited.
“We’re going to do very well,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he responded to shouted questions about his plans to address North Korea’s escalation as he left the White House on Wednesday to begin the trip.
Yet his comments on social media suggested that Mr. Trump is struggling to find a way to pressure China to use its influence on the North to de-escalate tensions. 

After the missile launch, Mr. Trump used Twitter to try to goad China into a strong response, suggesting that it “put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!”
He also said it was difficult to believe that Japan and South Korea would “put up with this much longer.”