Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, stated on late Tuesday that she used President Donald Trump’s unpredictability to her advantage when pushing tougher sanctions against North Korea.
According to CNN, Haley, while speaking at an event at the University of Houston, explained that she had difficulty getting the Russians and Chinese agreeing to stronger sanctions against North Korea.
Haley said that she knew China, in particular, wanted to avoid a destabilized North Korea.
“The truth is I would always use the unpredictability of President Trump to help me get the sanctions through,” Haley said.
“So I would say, ‘we have to cut off the (North Korean) laborers. We have to do this.’ And they’d say ‘oh no, no we can’t do that’,” Haley said.
“And I would say ‘OK, but I can’t promise you that President Trump won’t use the military’,” she continued. “I can’t promise there won’t be a more forceful action, so why can’t we do this and see if we can start to cut the revenue in North Korea?”
She also added that by the time the Chinese were on board with the sanctions, Russia’s opposition was less of a factor.
Meanwhile, multiple lawmakers, including Democrats, have credited Trump’s unpredictability with bringing North Korea to the negotiating table to abandon its nuclear program.
Trump is set to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore. However, the President suggested on Tuesday that there is still uncertainty over the summit, adding that it may happen later, or not at all.
North Korea threw the summit into doubt when it criticized the U.S. for conducting joint military drills with South Korea and threatened to end diplomatic talks.
North Korea on Wednesday allowed a number of reporters from several countries to witness the destruction of one of their nuclear testing facilities. This is considered to be a gesture of goodwill for the upcoming summit.
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