WASHINGTON: US Presi­dent Donald Trump said Sat­ur­­day that China’s President Xi Jinping is being “helpful” as the United States moves towards a summit with Nor­th Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump gave few details in a tweet about his telephone conversation with Xi Friday, but the White House had said the two leaders committed to keeping the pressure on North Korea until it takes “tangible steps” towards denuclearisation.

Trump stunned the world this week by accepting an invitation to meet Kim be­­fore the end of May, an unexpected turnabout after mon­ths of intensifying brinksmanship that sent tensions soaring.

Trump tweeted that Xi “appreciates that the US is working to solve the problem diplomatically rather than going with the ominous alternative. China continues to be helpful!”

The White House said the ever-more-powerful Chinese president committed to “ma­­intain pressure and sanct­ions until North Korea takes tangible steps toward complete, verifiable, and irre­­­versible denuclearisation.”

Trump praised a possible future agreement with the communist North as “very good” for the international community as a whole in a Friday tweet.

“The deal with North Korea is very much in the making and will be, if completed, a very good one for the World. Time and place to be determined,” Trump wrote.

As aides scrambled to catch up with the president’s decision, taken before consulting key confidantes, the White House sent mixed messages about conditions.

“They’ve made promises to denuclearise, they’ve made promises to stop nuclear and missile testing,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

“We’re not going to have this meeting take place until we see concrete actions that match the words and the rhetoric of North Korea,” she told reporters.

Officials behind the scenes said this did not constitute a change of heart.

In the Hague, former secretary of state and Trump rival Hillary Clinton questioned the administration’s readiness for the diplomatic challenge ahead.

“If you want to talk to Kim Jong Un about his nuclear weapons you need experienced diplomats,” Clinton told Dutch tabloid Algemeen Dagblad in an interview published Saturday.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2018