US ratchets up urgency on N. Korea ahead of China visit
WASHINGTON — The White House is ratcheting up the urgency over North Korea’s nuclear pursuit ahead of President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping’s first meeting, with a senior U.S. official warning that the “clock has now run out” on Pyongyang.
Trump and Xi will huddle Thursday and Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, a venue chosen to give the summit a more informal feel. White House officials said Tuesday that trade and security would be high on the new American president’s agenda, including pushing China to exert more economic pressure on North Korea.
Speaking at a White House business forum Tuesday, Trump called North Korea a “humanity problem.” A White House official later said “all options are on the table” for the U.S., though the official would not say what steps Trump was willing to take to curb Pyongyang’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the waters off its east coast on Wednesday, U.S. and South Korean officials said, in a reminder of the simmering tensions on the Korean peninsula.