China `Working With Us' on North Korean Issue

His stance on Russian Federation and Syrian President Bashar-al Assad has also done a 180.

Trump was the first major-party nominee in more than 40 years not to release his returns and he reneged on a campaign commitment to release them.

Still, former White House officials are raising eyebrows at Trump's move and insisting there is a reason why successive Democrat and Republican administrations have kept the issues of trade and North Korea separate in diplomacy with China.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who hosted his Iranian and Syrian counterparts at a trilateral meeting in Moscow, denounced last week's U.S. attack on Syria as a "flagrant violation" of worldwide law and warned that any further such action would entail "grave consequences not only for regional but global security".

He referred to the US bombing of a Syrian air base on April 7 to punish the Bashar al-Assad regime for a suspected use of chemical weapons. "We may be at an all-time low".

But Trump is new to the job of president, a neophyte on global affairs and inclined to look at danger zones the way he approached the real estate game: He believes desirable outcomes are just a matter of negotiation.

As he shifts away from Russia, Trump is offering an outstretched hand to China.

But Trump's previous pledges to get tough with China on trade may be melting away, in part because he seems to have offered Chinese President Xi a deal in which liberal U.S. trade policy will continue in exchange for Chinese cooperation in resolving security concerns around North Korea.

The declaration also came days after Trump - in a turnabout from his campaign stance - declared in an interview that his administration would not label China a currency manipulator, which could have triggered investigations.

President Donald Trump has personally underscored the importance of China's cooperation in tackling North Korea.

Earlier this week, Trump pledged to "take care of" the North Korean "problem".

By keeping discussions focused squarely on North Korea and shared U.S. and Chinese interests in preventing war on the Korean peninsula, United States officials have also avoided getting dragged into making other concessions - like recognizing China's territorial claims to Taiwan - in order to win China's full support on North Korea.

"We need to apply pressure on North Korea so they seriously respond to a dialogue" with the worldwide community, he said, urging China and Russian Federation to play more constructive roles on the issue.

"Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem?"

Putting aside prickly trade disputes with China appears to be a big part of the deal Trump envisions reaching with Xi.

Zhou said plans for the United States and China to spend 100 days looking for ways to tackle the trade imbalance were "just a beginning" and could result in China lifting a ban on American beef and opening up its financial market in the short term. "The question becomes, if they don't give him what he wants, what happens next?"

A recent United States Trade Representative (USTR) Trade Policy Agenda report criticized the US trade deficit with South Korea saying, "This is not the outcome the American people expected from that agreement".

President Donald Trump has said his administration will not label China a currency manipulator, rowing back on a campaign promise.

Tensions have been escalating on the peninsula, with heated rhetoric from both North Korea and the US.

North Korea Sunday staged a fresh missile test, a day after staging a defiant giant military parade and hours before US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in South Korea for talks on curbing Pyongyang's weapons programmes.