thank you so much for joining us scott snyder there a senior fellow for korea studies at the council on foreign relations thank you for joining us. thank you. joining the negotiating table a delegation representing the syrian government's arrived in geneva to participate in u. n. back peace talks to end the civil war. in the run up to the discussions that began tuesday was unclear whether it would attend these are the eight rounds of talks and missiles as representatives refuse to discuss the possibility. of his ouster simon harding reports. after months of speculation. the syrian government's is a join the official peace talks in geneva. eight months since. this attempts. led by city is un ambassador paschall jaafari. the delegation arrives one day. starts. city in media report the delay was june to the syrian opposition who also in town. repeating demand for such as down. the issue is that's the part you will be key i is the tas progress was halted a shushh are the thought should step jones d during the transitin period. this is not written. we had long since manson that is would a

kathy novak joining us live from seoul we're going to get more on this now we're joined by scott snyder director of the program on u.s. korea policy at the council on foreign relations and the all for of south korea at the crossroads and he's joining us live from washington d.c. mr snider great to have you with us on al-jazeera a plenty to talk about let's start with some of the strongest statements that we've heard this is even him coming from the u.s. ambassador in the key haley that all countries should cut off diplomatic relations with north korea still want to trade how realistic is that you know especially given pyongyang's relationship with two members of the security council china and russia who we've also heard from in the session. well the united states is clearly pushing for a broader international oil in bargo strongest pressure possible in terms of economic relations with north korea but north korea is dependent on china as the main source of economic supply so it does require china's cooperation that statement by the chinese ambassador really i think exposed some of the ga

and the importance of this tour in the forbidden city, we go to scott snyder.rector of us korea policy program on foreign relations, we are talking about north korea, china, all these issues, the president landed in beijing. what does the president need to say to xi jinping to motivate him to do the right thing with north korea. >> donald trump may have said what he needs to say to president xi jinping in his speech in the national assembly overnight. by describing the nature of the north korean regime and letting the facts speak for themselves rather than engaging in any insults or personal attacks. if president xi jinping takes on board the us is pursuing a strategy of pressure to counter a nuclear program as dangerous to china as the united states, the next step forward putting pressure on china to do the right thing. rob: a powerful speech, he called north korea a cult and was trying to show the people of south korea that he supports the people of north korea they need to get rid of this regime, a lot of support for the north korean people, right? >> absolu

well for more on this let's go to scott snyder in washington he's head of the program on u.s. korea policy at the council on foreign relations thanks very much for joining here joining us here on al-jazeera so a couple more conciliatory tone we're hearing but is this really a change in president chums actually cheered to the whole situation or was this just because he's now surrounded by south koreans who want to hear that will consider it your time well certainly the main thing that the south koreans had been hoping for is that president trump would stay on script. it appears in his first day in seoul that he has done that he delivered i think the most clear support for the broader administration strategy of course of diplomacy toward north korea but i think we've heard from the president himself so far we've always had from north korea that one of the reasons it is so pro nuclear weapons is because the americans on the south koreans have had these military exercises across the border close do you think there's a risk of that the president comes to visit will exacerbate north