WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday a major conflict with North Korea is possible in the standoff over its nuclear and missile programs, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute. 
 
 “There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely,” Trump told Reuters in an Oval Office interview ahead of his 100th day in office on Saturday. 
 
 Nonetheless, Trump said he wanted to peacefully resolve a crisis that has bedeviled multiple U.S. presidents, a path that he and his administration are emphasizing by preparing a variety of new economic sanctions while not taking the military option off the table. 
 
 “We’d love to solve things diplomatically but it’s very difficult,” he said. 
 
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 In other highlights of the 42-minute interview, Trump was cool to speaking again with Taiwan’s president after an earlier telephone call with her angered China. 
 
 He also said he wants South Korea to pay the cost of the U.S. THAAD anti-missile defense system, which he estimated at $1 billion, and intends to renegotiate or terminate a U.S. free trade pact with South Korea because of a deep trade deficit with Seoul. 
 
 Asked when he would announce his intention to renegotiate the pact, Trump said: “Very soon. I’m announcing it now.” 
 
 Trump also said he was considering adding stops to Israel and Saudi Arabia to a Europe trip next month, emphasizing that he wanted to see an Israeli-Palestinian peace. He complained that Saudi Arabia was not paying its fair share for U.S. defense. 
 
 Asked about the fight against Islamic State, Trump said the militant group had to be defeated. 
 
 “I have to say, there is an end. And it has to be humiliation,” he said, when asked about what the endgame was for defeating Islamist violent extremism. 
 
 XI ‘TRYING VERY HARD’ 
 
 Trump said North Korea was his biggest global challenge. He lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping for Chinese assistance in trying to rein in Pyongyang. The two leaders met in Florida earlier this month. 
 
 “I believe he is trying very hard. He certainly doesn’t want to see turmoil and death. He doesn’t want to see it. He is a good man. He is a very good man and I got to know him very well. 
 
 “With that being said, he loves China and he loves the people of China. I know he would like to be able to do something, perhaps it’s possible that he can’t,” Trump said. 
 
 Trump spoke just a day after he and his top national security advisers briefed U.S. lawmakers on the North Korean threat and one day before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will press the United Nations Security Council on sanctions to further isolate Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs. 
 
 The Trump administration on Wednesday declared North Korea “an urgent national security threat and top foreign policy priority.” It said it was focusing on economic and diplomatic pressure, including Chinese cooperation in containing its defiant neighbor and ally, and remained open to negotiations. 
 
 U.S. officials said military strikes remained an option but played down the prospect, though the administration has sent an aircraft carrier and a nuclear-powered submarine to the region in a show of force. 
 
 U.S. President Donald Trump looks out a window of the Oval Office following an interview with Reuters at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria 
 
 Any direct U.S. military action would run the risk of massive North Korean retaliation and huge casualties in Japan and South Korea and among U.S. forces in both countries. 
 
 ‘I HOPE HE’S RATIONAL’ 
 
 Trump, asked if he considered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to be rational, said he was operating from the assumption that he is rational. He noted that Kim had taken over his country at an early age. 
 
 “He’s 27 years old. His father dies, took over a regime. So say what you want but that is not easy, especially at that age. 
 
 “I’m not giving him credit or not giving him credit, I’m just saying that’s a very hard thing to do. As to whether or not he’s rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he’s rational,” he said. 
 
 Trump, sipping a Coke delivered by an aide after the president ordered it by pressing a button on his desk, rebuffed an overture from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who told Reuters a direct phone call with Trump could take place again after their first conversation in early December angered Beijing. 
 
 China considers neighboring Taiwan to be a renegade province. 
 
 “My problem is that I have established a very good personal relationship with President Xi,” said Trump. “I really feel that he is doing everything in his power to help us with a big situation. So I wouldn’t want to be causing difficulty right now for him. 
 
 “So I would certainly want to speak to him first.” 
 
 Trump also said he hoped to avoid a potential government shutdown amid a dispute between congressional Republicans and Democrats over a spending deal with a Saturday deadline looming. 
 
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 But he said if a shutdown takes place, it will be the Democrats’ fault for trying to add money to the legislation to “bail out Puerto Rico” and other items. 
 
 He also defended the one-page tax plan he unveiled on Wednesday from criticism that it would increase the U.S. deficit, saying better trade deals and economic growth would offset the costs. 
 
 “We will do trade deals that are going to make up for a tremendous amount of the deficit. We are going to be doing trade deals that are going to be much better trade deals,” Trump said. ||||| US president says he wants to seek a diplomatic solution to crisis in Korea and reveals China is helping to pressure Kim Jong-un 
 
 Donald Trump has said that a “major conflict” is possible with North Korea though he would prefer to solve the standoff over the country’s nuclear and missile programmes through diplomacy. 
 
 Trump’s warning on Thursday came towards the end of a week where the administration has made a concerted effort to restrain Pyongyang from carrying out major new weapons tests. 
 
 'We are a target': South Korean village wakes up on frontline with North Read more 
 
 At the same time, US officials sought to clarify US policy after a variety of mixed signals in the administration’s first 100 days. 
 
 
 
 Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state, said that the US would be prepared to enter into direct talks with the regime of Kim Jong-un, but that it would have to prepare to negotiate getting rid of all its nuclear weapons. 
 
 The opening to diplomacy came as the head of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris told the Senate that the standoff with North Korea was the worst he had seen. It was an assessment echoed by the president. 
 
 “There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely,” Trump told Reuters. 
 
 “We’d love to solve things diplomatically but it’s very difficult,” the president added. 
 
 
 
 Trump suggested there had been a breakthrough in Chinese readiness to help apply pressure on Kim since Xi Jinping visited the US president in Florida earlier this month. 
 
 “I believe he [the Chinese president] is trying very hard. He certainly doesn’t want to see turmoil and death. He doesn’t want to see it. He is a good man. He is a very good man and I got to know him very well,” Trump said. 
 
 “With that being said, he loves China and he loves the people of China. I know he would like to be able to do something, perhaps it’s possible that he can’t.” 
 
 What threat does North Korea pose to South Korea? The North may have found a way to make a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a missile, but firing one at the South is likely to provoke retaliation in kind, which would end the regime. Pyongyang has enough conventional artillery to do significant damage to Seoul, but the quality of its gunners and munitions is dubious, and the same problem – retaliation from the South and its allies - remains. In the event of a non-nuclear attack, Seoul's residents would act on years of experience of civil defence drills, and rush to the bomb shelters dotted around the city, increasing their chances of survival. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tillerson had earlier said the Chinese had warned Pyongyang, an increasingly unruly client in recent years, that it would impose punitive measures if North Korea carried out provocative tests. 
 
 “We know that China is in communications with the regime in Pyongyang,” he told Fox News. “They confirmed to us that they had requested the regime conduct no further nuclear test.” 
 
 According to Tillerson, the Chinese told the regime “that if they did conduct further nuclear tests, China would be taking sanctions actions on their own”. 
 
 China refused to confirm or deny the US claim of new pressure. A foreign ministry spokesman reiterated China’s support for UN sanctions on the North, but repeatedly avoided giving a direct answer when asked at a daily press briefing about what other plans China might be considering. 
 
 The US secretary of state said that the North Korean regime viewed its nuclear weapons and missile programmes as a guarantee of survival, and that the Trump administration sought to change that mindset. 
 
 
 
 “We want to change that calculus of theirs and we have said to them: your pathway to survival and security is to eliminate your nuclear weapons and we and other countries will help you on the way to economic development,” Tillerson said. He assured Pyongyang that the US objective was ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons, not toppling Kim Jong-un. 
 
 Could Trump’s diplomacy resolve his North Korea crisis? There’s hope | Simon Jenkins Read more 
 
 “We do not seek a regime change in North Korea. We are not seeking the collapse of the regime.” 
 
 Tillerson said that the US administration would “wait as long as it takes” for talks to start providing North Korea conducted no new nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile tests. 
 
 The secretary of state did not directly reply to a question on whether this policy was very similar to the “strategic patience” pursued by the Obama administration, which Tillerson had earlier said had come to an end. 
 
 In his Oval Office interview with Reuters, Trump offered an assessment of Kim. 
 
 
 
 Asked if he considered the North Korean leader to be rational he noted that Kim had taken over his country at an early age. 
 
 “He’s 27 years old. His father dies, took over a regime. So say what you want but that is not easy, especially at that age,” he said. 
 
 “I’m not giving him credit or not giving him credit, I’m just saying that’s a very hard thing to do. As to whether or not he’s rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he’s rational,” he said. 
 
 Meanwhile, in a sign that North Korea’s regional neighbours are taking the threat of a conflict seriously, Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull warned that Pyongyang could launch a nuclear attack on nations and claimed China has not applied enough pressure on the regime. 
 
 
 
 “There is the possibility and the risk that North Korea could launch an attack on its neighbours,” Turnbull said on 3AW radio. 
 
 
 
 “That is the reason why there is so much effort being put into seeking to stop this reckless and dangerous conduct by the North Korean regime. They are a real threat to the peace and stability in the region and to the whole world.” 
 
 
 
 Turnbull said while North Korea was often a subject of satire, the country had nuclear weapons and regularly threatened to use them. 
 
 
 
 “Their threats can appear sometimes to be theatrical and over the top and they have been the subject of satire but I can assure you that my government takes ... the threat of North Korea very seriously,” he said. 
 
 On Friday morning Tillerson will chair a special ministerial session of the UN security council on North Korea, aimed at convincing other members to impose existing sanctions on Pyongyang more rigorously. 
 
 In Washington, the head of the Arms Control Association, Daryl Kimball, welcomed the Trump administration’s readiness for direct talks with North Korea. 
 
 “There are some new things here. They are making clear that regime change is not the goal. There is a recognition that North Korea has security concerns,” Kimball said. “I think what we hearing the evening is more of the engagement part of the maximum pressure engagement policy that they are slowly rolling out.” 
 
 He added: “It’s going to require persistence and patience.” ||||| This is a set of web collections curated by Mark Graham using the Archive-IT service of the Internet Archive. They include web captures of the ISKME.org website as well as captures from sites hosted by IGC.org.These web captures are available to the general public.For more information about this collection please feel free to contact Mark via Send Mail ||||| "He may be someone who in many respects we would say by our standards is irrational," Rex Tillerson said of Kim Jong Un. "But he is not insane." | Getty Tillerson: Kim Jong Un 'is not crazy' 
 
 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that while North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be a ruthless, murderous dictator, he is not mentally insane. 
 
 "All indications are that he is not crazy," Tillerson told Fox News. "He may be ruthless. He may be a murderer. He may be someone who in many respects we would say by our standards is irrational. But he is not insane." 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 The secretary of state also said Thursday that the U.S. would prefer to resolve the ongoing nuclear proliferation standoff with North Korea through direct talks. Previous administrations generally favored only multilateral talks with North Korea. 
 
 In a pair of interviews, with Fox News and NPR, Tillerson offered expanded views on North Korea. 
 
 Tillerson, during an interview with NPR, set specific conditions for bilateral talks to occur: North Korea, he said, would have to be open to altering their agenda, rather than continuing their current course of military action. Asked whether such talks could help pacify the international dispute, Tillerson said they could. 
 
 “Obviously, that will be the way we would like to solve this," he told NPR. "But North Korea has to decide they're ready to talk to us about the about the right agenda and the right agenda is not simply stopping where they are for a few more months or a few more years and then resuming things. That's been the agenda for the last 20 years.” 
 
 While the Obama administration briefly engaged in direct talks with the rogue hermit nation early in 2009, Tillerson's stance marks a departure following years of deteriorating relations between the two countries in the wake of North Korea's increased militarization. 
 
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 President Donald Trump had expressed a willingness to hold talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the campaign trail, telling Reuters last May that he would "absolutely" try to reason with Un in office. 
 
 "I would speak to him, I would have no problem speaking to him," he said. 
 
 Tillerson added Thursday that the U.S. had no "red lines" for North Korea, stressing that peaceful co-existence was the U.S.' ultimate goal. 
 
 "We do not seek regime change. We do not seek a collapse of the regime. We do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula," he said. "We seek a denuclearized Korean peninsula and again that is entirely consistent with the objectives of others in the region as well.” 
 
 The top U.S. diplomat also emphasized the need for China to assert pressure on North Korea to reduce their nuclear program, revealing that Beijing had warned Pyongyang that additional nuclear tests could results in further sanctions. 
 
 "We were told by the Chinese that they informed the regime that if they did conduct further nuclear tests, China would be taking sanctions actions on their own," Tillerson said. 
 
 He added: “We’re asking a lot of the Chinese. We are going to test China’s willingness to help address this serious threat.” ||||| MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Southeast Asian nations expressed "grave concern" Friday over North Korea's nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches despite a plea from Pyongyang not to be subjected to such pressure. 
 
 Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations issued their statement Friday on the eve of an ASEAN leaders' annual summit in Manila, saying the instability on the Korean Peninsula "seriously impacts the region and beyond." 
 
 The 10-nation regional bloc also urged North Korea and all parties concerned "to exercise self-restraint in order to de-escalate the tension and refrain from actions that may aggravate the situation," adding its voice to a growing international alarm over the crisis involving the North and its rivals led by the United States. 
 
 President Donald Trump's administration has declared that all options, including a targeted military strike, are on the table to block North Korea from carrying out threats against the United States and its allies in the region. But a pre-emptive attack isn't likely, U.S. officials have said, and the administration is pursuing a strategy of putting pressure on Pyongyang with assistance from China, North Korea's main trading partner and the country's economic lifeline. 
 
 North Korea has been quietly reaching out to other nations to ease criticism amid the barrage of U.S. threats, according to a Philippine official. 
 
 Pyongyang sent its Bangkok-based ambassador to Manila recently "to suggest that North Korea not be put under pressure" during the ASEAN meetings hosted by the Philippines, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss the matter with the press. 
 
 One such meeting is the ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, in August, which is attended by the foreign ministers including those from the U.S. and North Korea. It is one of Asia's most high-profile security forums.
– President Trump says he wants to resolve America's differences with Pyongyang peacefully—but there is the chance we "could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea." Trump tells Reuters that the country is currently his biggest international worry. Asked whether he considers Kim Jong Un rational, Trump said it would have been tough for the leader to take over the country at 27 after his father died. "I'm not giving him credit or not giving him credit, I'm just saying that's a very hard thing to do. As to whether or not he's rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he's rational." In other developments: Rex Tillerson told Fox News on Thursday that he believes Kim is ruthless but sane, Politico reports. "He may be a murderer. He may be someone who in many respects we would say by our standards is irrational," the secretary of state said. "But he is not insane." Tillerson also said China had threatened North Korea with sanctions if it carried out further nuclear tests. "We know that China is in communications with the regime in Pyongyang," he said. "They confirmed to us that they had requested the regime conduct no further nuclear tests." The Guardian reports that China refused to confirm or deny the claim. In the Reuters interview, Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping's efforts to help rein in North Korea. "I believe he is trying very hard. He certainly doesn't want to see turmoil and death," Trump said. "He is a good man. He is a very good man and I got to know him very well." Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations issued a statement Friday calling for calm, the AP reports. They expressed "grave concern" over North Korea's nuclear tests and urged all parties to "exercise self-restraint in order to de-escalate the tension and refrain from actions that may aggravate the situation." Ministers from the 10-nation bloc will meet in Manila in the Philippines on Saturday. In a second interview Thursday, Tillerson, who will chair a UN Security Council meeting on the issue Friday, told NPR that the US is open to holding direct talks with North Korea if Pyongyang agrees to consider giving up its nuclear weapons. "We do not seek a collapse of the regime," he said. "We do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula. We seek a denuclearized Korean peninsula." North Korea released a new propaganda video Thursday that showed simulated attacks on the US, with the White House and aircraft carriers in the crosshairs, the Washington Post reports. "We will show you what a strong country that leads the world in nuclear and missile technology is capable of," a caption said. (Beijing is rumored to be behind a serious gas shortage in Pyongyang.)