Kin Cheung / AP
Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming, said Monday that Chinese-U.S. trade should not be a part of North Korea security threat issues since "They are not related."
- This comes on the heels of Trump's weekend tweets, in which he noted he is "very disappointed in China" since they "make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue."
- China is North Korea's biggest trade partner, and the U.S. and other allies have been applying pressure on China to reconsider its role in the North's funding.
- Between the lines, from Axios' Mike Allen: Both sides in the U.S.-China tug of war appear to be escalating rather than defusing.