US Secretary of State said the Trump administration was only in the early stages of its strategy to rein in Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear weapons programme<\/b>
\nUS Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday that Washington was only in the early stages of its campaign to pressure North Korea and to \u201clean hard\u201d on China to use its influence to curb Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear weapons programme. Tillerson also outlined the Trump administration\u2019s strategy in handling the nuclear crisis. Analysts, however, have questioned how far Beijing will support Washington\u2019s strategy to exert greater pressure on North Korea. Tillerson also said the United States has a tremendous opportunity to define its relationship with China for the next few decades and he sensed great interest among the Chinese leadership to do this, too. His comments came during his first address to all State Department employees since he took office in early February. Tillerson offered the most detailed outline of the Trump administration\u2019s foreign policy priorities he has given so far, with North Korea among the top concerns. The Trump administration strategy, which Tillerson described as a departure from the Obama government\u2019s approach, includes preparing for more sanctions against North Korea, convincing other countries to apply existing UN sanctions more rigorously, as well as \u201cleaning in hard\u201d on Beijing and to \u201ctest\u201d its commitment to reining in its wayward ally. Tillerson said the Trump administration had so far only covered about 20 to 25 per cent of its strategy to put pressure on Pyongyang and it was prepared to assert even stronger force on the reclusive regime. \u201cSo it\u2019s a pressure campaign that has a knob on it. I\u2019 d say we\u2019 re at about dial setting five or six right now, \u201d he said. Tillerson also warned that Washington may take action against Chinese banks or companies that deal with North Korea if Beijing fails to enforce existing UN sanctions. Shi Yinhong, an adviser to the State Council and director of the Centre for American Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, said he remained highly sceptical of how far China would be willing to go along with the US strategy on North Korea. \u201c [Tillerson\u2019s speech] was only bluffing to some extent. The Trump administration is in such a mess now I don\u2019 t believe they have a comprehensive plan [on North Korea] , \u201d he said. The US has underestimated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un\u2019s ability to resist pressure and has also failed to provide a clear offer to Pyongyang on the conditions for negotiations, he said. The US campaign to pressure China to rein in North Korea has achieved some degree of success as Beijing has toughened its response towards Pyongyang, he added. But there was still a \u201cbig gap between what China is willing to do and what Trump expects China to do\u201d, said Shi. Tillerson said during his comments on Wednesday that US-China relations were at a \u201cpoint of inflection\u201d and ripe for review. \u201cLet\u2019s kind of revisit this relationship and what it is going to be over the next half century, \u201d Tillerson said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a tremendous opportunity we have to define that and there seems to be a great interest on the part of the Chinese leadership to do that as well.\u201d Beijing has previously said the two countries should work towards a \u201cnew type of relations between great powers\u201d, but the idea received a lukewarm reaction from the Obama administration. In a separate development, Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Yang discussed China-US economic ties on the phone with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Wednesday. The three \u201cexchanged ideas on enhancing comprehensive economic cooperation between the two countries\u201d the state-run news agency Xinhua reported late on Wednesday, but without giving further details. Washington is to host the first round of the US-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue in June. Tillerson and US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis will chair the talks with their Chinese counterparts. The discussions on economics and trade will be led by Mnuchin and Ross, according to Xinhua.<\/p>\n