President Trump posted on Twitter Wednesday that he has talked to the Chinese president about North Korea’s recent missile launch and said “major sanctions” will be imposed on the reclusive regime.
“Just spoke to President XI JINPING of China concerning the provocative actions of North Korea. Additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today. This situation will be handled!,” Trump wrote.
Trump’s tweet comes a day after President Kim Jong Un’s government launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that US experts said has the capability to strike the US mainland.
It’s unclear what new sanctions the Trump administration could levy on North Korea.
The United Nations Security Council in September unanimously approved a series of economic penalties against Pyongyang over the country’s nuclear and missile development systems.
A few weeks later, Trump issued an executive order outlining another round of sanctions that would penalize companies or people doing business with against Kim’s regime.
Last week, Trump put North Korea back on a list of countries that support terrorism, a designation that allowed the Treasury Department to further isolate Pyongyang by squeezing its ability to import or export goods.
The White House said Trump in his call with Xi “emphasized the need for China to use all available levers to convince North Korea to end its provocations and return to the path of denuclearization.”
During his 12-day trip to five Asian countries earlier this month, Trump urged allies in the region to keep pressuring the regime to get it to drop its military ambitions.