Just two days earlier, Trump had condemned the "brutality of the North Korean regime" after the death of Otto Warmbier, an American student who was detained in North Korea for almost a year and a half.
He handles North Korean issues for the Department of State and met with North Korean officials in Norway and NY about Warmbier's release. John McCain, R-Arizona, said that anyone who is "stupid" enough to visit North Korea should be required to sign a waiver absolving the USA government from any responsibility for that individual while they are overseas.
(CNN) - Days after the death of USA student Otto Warmbier following 17 months detention in North Korea, the country's state media claimed his death was a "mystery".
U.S. doctors said he had suffered a severe neurological injury from an unknown cause. KCNA said the North dealt with him according to its domestic laws and worldwide standards. He was there serving a 15 year sentence of hard labor after allegedly attempting to steal a propaganda poster.
USA diplomatic and defense chiefs met their Chinese counterparts for security talks and pushed China to rein in companies that allegedly deal with its wayward ally North Korea in violation of United Nations sanctions. After Warmbier's death, the President described it as a "disgrace" suggesting in a tweet that the efforts of China to help rein in North Korea.
But like his predecessors, Trump is gradually learning that for all its talk about cooperation, China is deeply reluctant to take any measures that could seriously destabilise the North Korean government, for fear the country might collapse or be absorbed by the South.
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Mr Gupta said Mr Trump and PM Modi can begin on the right foot by communicating their desire to advance the relationship to new heights.
Pyongyang's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the United States president was in a "tough situation" at home and claimed he was toying with the idea of a preemptive strike on North Korea to divert attention from a domestic political crisis.
"To make it clear, we are the biggest victim of this incident and there would be no more foolish judgment than to think we do not know how to calculate gains and losses", the spokesman said.
Inside the arts center, some of the personal items Warmbier took to North Korea were on display: a wallet, a University of Virginia notebook and the cream-colored linen blazer he wore there, CNN says.
China is expected to face calls for tougher sanctions on North Korea. We look away rather than deal with the implications that a poor, small country halfway around the world is imprisoning its citizens, starving them, torturing them and killing them year in and year out.
North Korea should immediately release the other foreigners it has detained - six South Koreans, one Canadian, and three Americans - and end its practice of seizing foreign nationals for political purposes. After global outrage and over a year of imprisonment, North Korea released Warmbier last week, saying his health had deteriorated after a bout of botulism.
He now works as a private consultant for American families, using his contacts in North Korea to try to bring home detained loved ones.
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