PRESIDENT TRUMP: If China doesn’t deal with North Korea, we will.

“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 that 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.”

Beijing might like nothing better.