US President Donald Trump said he had developed "a very good relationship" with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who he believed had been pressing the DPRK to drop its nuclear ambitions.
Trump, in an interview with CBS program, "Face The Nation" on Saturday, on his 100th day in the White House, described Xi as "a very respected man" and "a man that I've gotten to like and respect."
The two presidents met at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in early April and held two subsequent phone conversations on bilateral ties and international issues, particularly soaring tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Trump talks about soaring tensions on the Korean Peninsula
In the CBS interview, Trump said he believed the Chinese president had been putting pressure on DPRK leader Kim Jong Un to dissuade the country from conducting a nuclear test.
He stressed that he would not be happy if the DPRK conducted a nuclear test, adding that he did not believe Xi would be happy either.
China does not want to see a destabilized DPRK, the US president said. "They certainly don't want to see nuclear on – from their neighbor. They haven't liked it for a long time. But we'll have to see what happens."
China has repeatedly stressed its commitment to the goal of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and called for a peaceful solution to the issue.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and his US counterpart Donald Trump (L) hold talks at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the US on April 7, 2017. /Xinhua Photo
Trump said the DPRK crisis "maybe more important than trade" because massive warfare would possibly kill millions of people. He indicated that he could use trade as a method to get China help the US solve the DPRK problem.
The Trump administration did not label China a currency manipulator as he had promised during the election campaign.
'Kim is pretty smart cookie'
Trump called DPRK leader Kim "a pretty smart cookie," saying that he "was a young man of 26 or 27 when he took over from his father" at the end of 2011, adding that the young leader was "dealing with obviously very tough people."
Kim is believed to have been born on January 8, 1983.
Trump talks about Kim.
The US president underscored the fact that Kim "was able to assume power" at a very young age. "A lot of people, I'm sure, tried to take that power away, whether it was his uncle or anybody else. And he was able to do it," Trump said. "So obviously, he's a pretty smart cookie."
Kim purged a number of senior officials and generals after taking power, including the execution of Jang Song Thaek, vice chairman of the DPRK's National Defense Commission and secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea administration department. Jang was married to Kim's aunt.
When asked whether Kim was sane, Trump said he had no idea.
'Hard to say who did the hacking'
In response to questions about hacked Democrats' email accounts in the 2016 presidential election, Trump suggested that it is difficult to uncover hackers unless they are caught at the time.
"Knowing something about hacking, if you don't catch a hacker, OK, in the act, it's very hard to say who did the hacking," he told CBS correspondent John Dickerson.
He added that he would love to find out what happened.
Top US intelligence officials attend a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on foreign cyber threats to the US in Washington, DC, the US on January 5, 2017. /VCG Photo
According to CIA's finding last December, the Kremlin deliberately intervened in the US presidential election to help Trump, but Trump had angrily denied the assessment, calling it "ridiculous."
In recent years, Washington has complained about cyber attacks from China on many occasions, an accusation that Beijing has firmly denied. China says it is one of the major victims of cyber attacks and that it opposes cyber attacks in all forms.
Trump talks about presidency.
Talking about his presidency, Trump said he enjoyed it and had done a good job. "I love doing it. I'm, you know, thoroughly enjoying it. It's always a challenge, like life itself is a challenge. But it's something that I really love and I think I've done a very good job at it."
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