Graham urged Trump to have China assassinate North Korean leader: Book

US Senator Lindsey Graham once urged President Donald Trump to encourage the Chinese government to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and replace him with a military general they could control, according to an explosive new book.

Graham, Republican of South Carolina, pitched the plot to Trump during a national security meeting at the White House in September last year, veteran journalist Bob Woodward reveals in his book, Fear: Trump in the White House, which was released on Tuesday.

The national security meeting was also attended by former national security adviser HR McMaster and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

"China needs to kill him and replace him with a North Korean general they control," Graham said at the time, according to Woodward.

"I think the Chinese are clearly the key here and they need to take him out. Not us, them. And control the nuclear inventory there. And wind this thing down. Or control him. To stop the march to a big nuclear arsenal. My fear is that he will sell it," the senator added.

At the time, tensions were running particularly high with North Korea, which was testing intercontinental ballistic missiles. President Trump had vowed to “totally destroy” the country if it ever threatened the United States.

Graham also reportedly pleaded with Trump to take a more hawkish stance on international issues, including a stronger military presence in Afghanistan.

“Do you want on your resume that you allowed Afghanistan to go back into the darkness and the second 9/11 came from the very place the first 9/11 did?” the senator asked the president, according to the book.

Trump reportedly asked Graham, “How does this end?” to which the senator responded, “It never ends.”

Woodward’s blockbuster book has rocked the White House. It depicts an administration driven by dysfunction, where staffers work to subvert the president and protect the country from his worst inclinations.  

The book also reveals that Trump had drafted a tweet that would have been interpreted as a declaration of war by the North Korans. The tweet, which was never sent, said Washington was pulling out military dependents from South Korea.

The US has been engaged in diplomacy with Pyongyang after a summit between Trump and Kim in June, but with little progress.

Washington is, meanwhile, coordinating a second meeting as the US president has received what the White House described as a "very warm, very positive letter" from the North Korean leader.

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