US president tells reporters Xi Jinping is ‘a tremendous guy’ who wants to do what’s best for China, but trade is still his main bargaining chip to get Beijing to help rein in Pyongyang
US President Donald Trump says he understands President Xi Jinping’s concerns about refugees flooding over the border if North Korea collapses, but trade is still his main bargaining chip to get Beijing to take action on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.
Xi was “a tremendous guy” with whom he had “a very good relationship”, Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Wednesday as he flew to Paris to take part in Bastille Day celebrations, according to an article in The New York Times .
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“So he could be a tremendous guy, but he’s going to do what is good for China, and he doesn’ t want 50 million people pouring across his border, ” Trump was quoted as saying.
The two leaders met in person for the second time on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg last Saturday.
Although there was a lack of transparent figures from North Korea, experts often put the population of the reclusive authoritarian nation at 24 million, said Lu Chao, director of the Border Study Institute at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, located in the bordering province.
The United Nations put the population of the country at 25.2 million in 2016.
“It’s unlikely that everyone in North Korea would become refugees, ” Lu said.
