The U.S. airstrikes this week were aimed at a Syrian air base, but nearly certainly got the attention of another adversary - North Korea.
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - President Donald Trump says his meetings with China's President Xi Jinping went well but as for any progress on trade "only time will tell".
Trump has repeatedly hammered China for exporting more to the US than it buys. Among the topics of discussion was the vexing problem of North Korea. It has conducted five nuclear tests -two since the beginning of last year-and scores of missile tests.
North Korea has pledged to bolster its defenses to protect against such airstrikes. -China trade more balanced. But they lean more toward sanctions and increased pressure on Beijing to rein in its neighbor. Having gotten through the talks without making any major, specific commitments, the Chinese president would seem to have won some ground - or at least some wiggle room - in the Trump talks.
Trump and South Korea's leader, acting President Hwang Kyo-Ahn, spoke by phone on Friday, according to the White House, which said they agreed to stay in close contact about North Korea and other issues.
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He called Hitler "despicable" but wrongly alleged that the Nazi leader did not use "the gas on his own people the same way Assad used them".
Asked if Friday's strikes against Syria were a message to North Korea, Tillerson told ABC's This Week: "The message that any nation can take is, 'If you violate global norms, if you violate worldwide agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point a response is likely to be undertaken'".
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson makes a statement about the visit of China's President Xi Jinping and about the situation in Syria, at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., April 6, 2017. It claims its nuclear weapons are a necessary deterrent to the USA military threat.
Earlier this year, China called on both North Korea and the USA to tone down tension on the Korean peninsula - North Korea by suspending its nuclear weapons programme and the United States by stopping military exercises with South Korea that inflame Pyongyang.
The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with an armistice, not a formal peace treaty. But unlike Syria, experts warn that North Korea has a means of striking back if provoked.
Trump days before meeting Xi warned that the U.S. was prepared to act unilaterally to stop North Korea's nuclear advances should China be unwilling to use its leverage over Pyongyang.
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