Petraeus: Trump’s Rhetoric Is Aimed at China to Bring North Korea to Its Senses

‘So that China will really clamp down on the umbilical cord through which 90 percent of the trade that goes to and from North Korea transits’

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RADDATZ: And we’re back now with General Petraeus. Your successor at the CIA said we have about a 20 percent to 25 percent chance of a real conflict there. Can you see a diplomatic resolution at this point?

PETRAEUS: I think there’s still an opportunity here. And really all of this rhetoric, frankly, is aimed not at North Korea but at China. This is about getting President Xi’s attention, once he’s done with the party congress, of course, which is still ongoing. So that China will really clamp down on the umbilical cord through which 90 percent of the trade that goes to and from North Korea transits.

China has the ability to bring North Korea to its senses, and doesn’t want to bring it to its knees, because they don’t want to see a reunified Korean peninsula and all that that would entail. But this is possible. And that’s what this is all aimed at doing. The saber rattling, certainly the preparations, so that if there is some kind of military engagement that we will be the best prepared we can possibly be.

But needless to say any possible scenario is ugly. And that’s what everyone is intent on preventing, but it requires China’s action.

RADDATZ: And you talked about the rhetoric being aimed at China, but there has been a lot of rhetoric from President Trump. And he tweeted recently that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is wasting his time trying to negotiate with North Korea. You’re saying all of this is just aimed at China?

PETRAEUS: This is aimed at China. And again Secretary Tillerson is undertaking the kind of strategic engagement that is very necessary here to build that relationship also in advance of a trip out there by the president himself.

But this is the essence of this. This is China’s decision to take, whether they are going to do, which they did do one time before, 15 or so years ago, which was to get North Korea back to the negotiating table, halt the missile and nuclear testing where it is right now.

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