Beijing slams US as Trump talks to Xi on NKorea threat

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in a phone call Sunday on the need for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, hours after their two navies came close to a hostile encounter in the disputed area of the South China Sea. The USS Stethem destroyer sailed less than 12 nautical miles from the tiny Triton Island of the Pracel Islands archipelago claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, a US official reported. China thereupon deployed warships and fighter jets to counter what the foreign ministry in Beijing called “a serious political and military provocation” that violated Chinese sovereignty and its security. This incident was not reported in the readout of the Trump conversations with Xi and Japanese PM Abe.