Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

{US president says trade could be a lever in getting China to take a tougher stance over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.}

US President Donald Trump held out the possibility on Sunday of using trade as a lever to secure Chinese cooperation against North Korea and suggested Washington might deal with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes on its own if need be.

The comments, in an interview published on Sunday by the Financial Times, appeared designed to pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping in the run-up to his visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this week.

“China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone,” Trump was quoted as saying, according to an edited transcript published by the newspaper.

Asked what incentive the US had to offer China, Trump replied: “Trade is the incentive. It is all about trade.”

Asked if he would consider a “grand bargain” in which China pressured Pyongyang in return for a guarantee the US would later remove troops from the Korean peninsula, the newspaper quoted Trump as saying: “Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.”

It is not clear whether Trump’s comments will move China, which has taken steps to increase economic pressure on Pyongyang but has long been unwilling to do anything that may destabilise the North and send millions of refugees across their border.

It is also unclear what the US might do on its own to deflect North Korea from the expansion of its nuclear capabilities and from the development of missiles with ever-longer ranges and the capacity to deliver atomic warheads.

Trump’s national security aides have completed a review of US options to try to curb North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes that includes economic and military measures but leans more towards sanctions and increased pressure on Beijing to rein in its reclusive neighbour, a US official said.

Although the option of pre-emptive military strikes on North Korea is not off the table, the review prioritises less-risky steps and “de-emphasises direct military action,” the official added, saying it was not immediately known if the National Security Council recommendations had made their way to Trump.

The White House declined comment on the recommendations.

Trump and Xi are also expected to discuss Chinese ambitions in the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, when they meet on Thursday and Friday. China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the strategic waterway.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke on Sunday with China’s top diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, about Xi’s visit “and other issues of bilateral and regional importance,” a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.

China’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday about the call that Yang had described the meeting between Xi and Trump as being of “great significance” for peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large.

Tillerson told Yang that the US would do its utmost to ensure that the meeting had “positive results,” the ministry said.

Trump’s deputy national security adviser, Kathleen Troia McFarland, said there was a “real possibility” North Korea could be capable of hitting the United States with a nuclear-armed missile by the end of Trump’s four-year term, the Financial Times reported.

McFarland’s estimate appeared more pessimistic than those of many experts.

“The typical estimates are that it will take five years or so,” said Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US and a leading expert on North Korea’s nuclear programme.

Such estimates are notoriously hard to make both because of the scarcity of intelligence about North Korea and uncertainty about how high a success rate Pyongyang might want for such missiles.

John Schilling, a contributor to the “38 North” North Korea monitoring project, said Pyongyang might have missiles capable of limited strikes on the US mainland by the end of Trump’s term, but “it will most likely be a bit later than that.”

“I doubt that any missile they could put into service by the end of 2020 will be very reliable, but perhaps it doesn’t have to be – one or two successes out of six launches against the US would be a political game-changer to say the least,” Schilling said.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Right-wing Lasso says he would contest the results after partial counting showed him trailing rival Moreno.}

Right-wing opposition candidate Guillermo Lasso alleged fraud in Ecuador’s presidential runoff election and said he would contest the result after a partial count showed him losing.

Leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno had claimed victory in Sunday’s vote, bucking a shift to the right across South America as Lasso’s supporters took to the streets in protest.

“They’ve toyed with popular will, we are going to defend the will of the Ecuadoran people in the face of an attempted fraud that aims to install what would be an illegitimate government,” Lasso said.

A Moreno victory would come as a relief for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange after Lasso vowed to remove him from the Ecuadorean embassy in London if he won the runoff.

Moreno, a paraplegic former vice-president, had secured 51.07 percent of the votes compared to Lasso’s 48.93 percent, with just over 94 percent of votes counted, according to the electoral council.

It has not yet declared a winner.

Right-leaning governments have come to power in Argentina, Brazil, and Peru recently as a commodities boom ended, economies flagged and corruption scandals grew.

Lasso, a former banker, had promised to denounce embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an ally of Ecuador’s current government.

A bitter Lasso disputed the results on Sunday night.

He cited the first round of the election in February, when final results took days to come out and his supporters massed in front of the electoral council to guard against what they said were fraud attempts.

Moreno won 39.36 percent of the vote in the election’s first round on February 19, falling just short of the 40 percent and 10-point-lead necessary to win outright.

Lasso won 28.9 percent of the first round’s votes, but was expected to pick up more votes after conservative Congresswoman Cynthia Viteri, who finished third in the first round, threw her support behind him.

{{Street protests}}

On Sunday, hundreds of Lasso supporters swarmed in front of the electoral council offices in capital Quito and coastal city Guayaquil, Lasso’s hometown, chanting “no to fraud” and “no to dictatorship”.

Al Jazeera’s Daniel Schweimler, reporting from Quito, said Moreno was already celebrating victory.

“Moreno was singing along with the outgoing Rafael Correa. He’s absolutely convinced he is the president-elect,” he said.

“Both sets of supporters are out on the streets and while clashes have been reported, police are keeping both sides apart. Things are tense but relatively peaceful.”

Moreno, who has been in a wheelchair since losing the use of his legs two decades ago after being shot during a robbery, would become one of the world’s rare presidents to use a wheelchair if he takes office on May 24.

“Lenin”, as he is commonly referred to by his supporters, was already celebrating a victory that would extend a decade of leftist rule.

“From now on, let’s work for the country. All of us,” Moreno told flag-waving supporters in the mountainous capital Quito.

Source:Al Jazeera