FOREIGN POLICY/NORTH KOREA/PHILIPPINES: “President Donald Trump widened an outreach that could help promote the enforcement of sanctions against North Korea, with White House invitations to the leaders of Thailand and Singapore, following an invitation to the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte.
The Southeast Asian nations could help Mr. Trump in a part of Asia where United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs have been inconsistently enforced.
Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said the White House needed to build a consensus among Asian allies. ‘The issue facing us, developing out of North Korea, is so serious that we need cooperation at some level with as many partners in the area as we can get,’ he told ABC News.”
-Jake Maxwell Watts, “Asian Leaders Are Drawn Into U.S. Push on North Korea,” The Wall Street Journal online, May 1, 2017 1:39pm