Who Trump Is Really Talking to When He Talks to North Korea
“This is about China,” says David Petraeus.
David Petraeus has a theory about Donald Trump’s tough talk to Kim Jong Un concerning the North Korean nuclear-weapons program: The American president isn’t actually talking to Kim, at least not primarily. “This is about China,” which, in accounting for 90 percent of North Korea’s trade and supplying the North with oil, “controls the umbilical cord that literally keeps the lights on in Pyongyang,” said the former CIA director.
Under from the Trump administration, China has committed to substantially reducing trade and financial ties with its neighbor, supporting two rounds of UN Security Council sanctions against the North. But it’s been reluctant to isolate North Korea to such an extent that it endangers
