North Korea's treatment of an American student who died after being released from detention in a coma was inhuman and USA patience with Pyongyang is running out, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Wednesday. President Donald Trump has been counting on China to use its economic leverage over Kim Jong Un's totalitarian government.
Otto Warmbier, the American college student who spent 17 months in detention in North Korea, died on June 19, 2017 in Cincinnati, Ohio, his family said in a statement. Trump has hardened his rhetoric against North Korea following the death of Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who died on Monday in the United States after returning from captivity in North Korea in a coma. The Young Pioneer Tours agency built up a business attracting young travelers with cut-rate, hard-partying adventures into one of the world's most isolated countries. "We. continue to urge China to exert its unique influence and leverage over North Korea as its largest trading partner", a key USA official had said.
Tillerson said the U.S. and Chinese officials had agreed that companies from both countries should not do business with any UN-designated North Korean entities.
But tensions remain - particularly over China's building of artificial islands in disputed South China Sea waters.
To read this article in one of Houston's most-spoken languages, click on the button below. At a recent security conference in Singapore, he said the US would not turn a blind eye to maritime disputes in exchange for cooperation on North Korea, reassuring American allies.
Last month, Beijing and Washington signed a limited deal to open new markets for each other's exports, and a long-standing friend of the Chinese leadership, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, was confirmed as U.S. ambassador.
No autopsy for US student detained by North Korea
North Korea claims his coma was due to botulism and a sleeping pill, but the Warmbier family and doctors disagree. The US State Department has also pushed for the release of all American citizens now detained in North Korea .
Trump - who frequently denounced China on the campaign trail - has turned to Beijing to help pressure its ally North Korea, prompting concern among Asian partners that America might go easy on the South China Sea territorial dispute. "We will continue to work with them and others to put the appropriate pressure on North Korea and to change this behavior in this regime".
Prior to the talks, the State Department called North Korea's military provocations the "top priority" for the two participants.
The United States seeks a constructive and results-oriented relationship with China in which differences are managed when they arise, Mattis said.
No cause of death has been determined for student Otto Warmbier (WARM'-beer).
Trump has held high hopes for greater cooperation from China to exert influence over North Korea, leaning heavily on Chinese President Xi Jinping for his assistance.
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