Taking part in any kind of sales of oil that would violate u. N. Sanctions. The Treasury Department note d last month that there were north korea ben shipping companies that were attempting these ship to ship transfers likely of oil to evade u. N. Sanctions, but the president is on vacation here in maralago. He was on the golf course when the tweet was sent. Weve reached out to a number of of his aides at National Security counsel. Was there something new that set off the president . Some new piece of information he had confirmed . Did he know there was a new Transfer Attempt and we got no response ch its Worth Remembering that the president travel wg a very thin staff when he goes on vacations like this. So its possible that even his own staffers dont knowd the pr to send this tweet today. All right, thank you very much. With me now, the author of nuclear showdown, north korea takes on the world, gordon
chang. And cnn security analyst, bob. Gordon, let me begin with you. The word fs f
negotiate with the chinese. get their cooperation, but these satellite imaungs of ship to ship transfers are by themselves a violation of u.n. sanctions. even if nothing came across those pipelines. so right now, the chinese have been caught red handed and that puts trump in very difficult position because he s got to do something! but bo. but bob, explain to the american people what it is that china gains from aiding north korea. because it is important to note the interest of the united states and china are not completely aligned. when it comes to north korea. well i think it s a thorn in our side. don t forget that the chinese and russians have essentially equipped north korea to build this bomb. they didn t create all this. all these parts from you know, scratch. they ve been helping all along. 18 years ago, they could have done something about this. so they like it that we re in a bind. they are not our friends. they are our competitors. he s right about that.
i do not know if a trade war is going to force their hand. i do not know whether the president of china is capable of caving into us on north korea. so openly and after a threat like this. i would be surprised. because that is, you know, it s the shame of that. and would politically undermine the chinese leadership. gordon, to be clear. china does not see it in its best interest necessarily. they don t want to see nuclear war break out of course, but also, they don t see it in their best interest to have a unified korean peninsula. bob is actually right. this is more than just a tlorn in our side. you know, every time that north korea does something provocative, we send a secretary of state to beijing, plead for ration cooperation. as one indian general said a few
president trump acted reckless ly in your words for spreading the unfounded allegation at the time that president obama had ordered his phones wiretapped. you said that was reckless because it was unfounded. then you came on television two weeks ago and said well the rumor is that the president s going to fire bob b mueller on the 22nd of december. didn t happen. aren t they analogous? no, they re not. because i said the it was a rumor. he didn t say it was a rumor. he said it was fact that president obama had actually eves dropped on him in trump tower. that s a huge, that s a very different kind of scenario. wone was sending up a red flag, putting out a warning. the other, his statement, was basically that president obama had done something that in fact, he had not done. do you still have concerns, real concerns, that the president will try to oust robert mueller? i do have concerns that he will try to do that. look what he did with director
what would move china s hand? if he, if trump declared bankrupt china one of china s so-called big four banks, a primary money laundering concern under section 311 of the patriot act. that would be a death sentence for one of china s biggest banks and it would rock confidence in china. it could have repercussions on the u.s. we ve got a trading partner there. you have to weigh what is more important at the time. bob, you note it s difficult to shame china into action. it s what the president s trying to do through essentially twitter diplomacy here. what comes of this? well, you re not going to shame them. i mean the fact is the chinese are also in a corner. they don t want the collapse of the regime in north korea. they worry about the rationality of kim jong-un. what s he quoing to do if it does start to collapse? is he going to let missiles loose on seoul, on japan?