WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said Wednesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a "very wise" decision by opting to hold off on a missile strike near Guam, a U.S. territory that is home to a military base.
"Kim Jong Un of North Korea made a very wise and well reasoned decision," Trump wrote on Twitter. "The alternative would have been both catastrophic and unacceptable!"
North Korea's military on Tuesday presented Kim with plans to launch missiles into waters near Guam and "wring the windpipes of the Yankees," the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. But the North Korean leader said he will watch the U.S.' conduct "a little more" and praised his strategic force for drawing up "a close and careful plan," the news agency reported.
Trump said last week that North Korea would be met with "fire and fury" if the country proceeded with its threats against the U.S. After the U.N. Security Council approved new sanctions against North Korea earlier this month, the North's military said it was examining a plan for "enveloping fire at the areas around Guam."
The Pentagon's top general and his Chinese counterpart signed an agreement Tuesday aimed at improving communication in times of crisis, a step that brings Beijing and Washington closer together as the two nations grapple with what to do about North Korea and its pursuit of a robust nuclear weapons program.
Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Fang Fenghui of the Chinese army signed the deal at the Chinese military headquarters in Beijing at the outset of a three-day visit by Dunford.
The agreement establishes what the Pentagon called the Joint Staff Dialogue Mechanism, in which a three-star officer on Dunford's staff, Army Lt. Gen. Richard Clarke, will communicate regularly with a Chinese counterpart.
Though China supported the Security Council's move to impose further sanctions on North Korea, Chinese President Xi Jinping in July described relations with the United States as strained, especially as Washington has pressed Beijing to do more to rein in its ally. But there have been some signs of improvement in recent days, including China's decision to ban North Korean iron ore, iron, lead and coal as part of the new United Nations sanctions package against Pyongyang.
China is North Korea's main economic partner and political backer, although relations between Beijing and Pyongyang have deteriorated in face of the North's continuing defiance of China's calls for restraint.
China and the United States appear to differ starkly on other issues, including a U.S. plan to deploy in South Korea a missile-defense system known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, as well as China's efforts to expand its territorial claims in the South China Sea.
China also warned the Trump administration last month not to start a trade war with Beijing and split up the coalition countering North Korea.
Dunford, speaking in China, acknowledged that there are a number of challenges.
"To be honest, we have many difficult issues where we will not necessarily have the same perspectives," Dunford said, according to a Pentagon news account. "But from the meeting we had in Washington, D.C., and the meeting we just had, I know we share one thing: We share a commitment to work through these difficulties. With the guidance from our presidents and the areas of our cooperation, I know we will make progress over the next few days."
"I think our collective challenge is to sincerely and with candor attack these issues that we have to address," he said.
CALLS FOR CALM
After Kim's decision not to strike, at least for now, the focus has shifted toward finding a diplomatic solution.
At the U.N., Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for confidence-building measures to defuse tensions and for a return to negotiations.
"As tensions rise, so does the risk of misunderstanding, miscalculation or escalation," Guterres said Wednesday. "There are many possible avenues for this dialogue, from various bilateral formations to the six-party talks."
Talks involving North Korea, South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia ran from 2003 until 2009, when North Korea abandoned them.
South Korea, too, is on edge, and a conservative political party on Wednesday called for the United States to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula.
China, for its part, urged the United States and North Korea to "hit the brakes" on threatening words and work toward a peaceful resolution of their recent standoff.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a Tuesday phone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, that the U.S. and North Korea should work together to contain tensions and permit no one to "stir up an incident on their doorstep," according to a statement posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website.
"The most important task at hand is for the U.S. and North Korea to 'hit the brakes' on their mutual needling of each other with words and actions, to lower the temperature of the tense situation and prevent the emergence" of a crisis, Wang was quoted as saying.
The ministry quoted Lavrov as saying tensions could rise again with the U.S. and South Korea set to begin large-scale military exercises Monday.
"A resolution of the North Korea nuclear issue by military force is completely unacceptable, and the peninsula's nuclear issue must be peacefully resolved by political and diplomatic methods," Lavrov was quoted as saying.
Separately, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday called on Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Peru to cut all economic and diplomatic relations with North Korea as the U.S. looks to broaden the coalition of countries pressuring Kim to curtail his nuclear program.
Pence made the statement after meeting in Santiago with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet as part of a six-day tour of South America, including stops in Argentina and Colombia.
"We strongly urge Chile today, and we urge Brazil, Mexico and Peru to break all diplomatic and commercial ties to North Korea," Pence told reporters. "The era of strategic patience is over, with regard to North Korea. All options are on the table."
While the vast majority of North Korea's trade is with China, there is a small percentage that flows to Latin America. Chile exported $2 million worth of products to the Asian nation in 2015, of which 90 percent was copper, while importing $25 million, largely in steel and iron products, according to La Tercera newspaper. While Chile has a "joint arrangement" with China and North Korea, it hasn't presented credentials for the past four years.
"I asked Bachelet to formally end that relationship," Pence said. "Our objective is clear; it is a nuclear-free Korean peninsula."
Information for this article was contributed by Toluse Olorunnipa, Hooyeon Kim, David Tweed, Narae Kim, Kambiz Foroohar, Shannon Pettypiece and Javiera Quiroga of Bloomberg News; by Dan Lamothe and Brian Murphy of The Washington Post; by Motoko Rich of The New York Times; and by Christopher Bodeen, Foster Klug, Kim Tong-hyung, Hyung-jin Kim, Matthew Lee, Robert Burns and Andrew Harnik of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/17/2017