Donald Trump arrived Tuesday afternoon in South Korea, the second of five nations on his Asian itinerary this week and next.
Air Force One landed at the Osan Airbase shortly after noon, greeted by a 21-cannon salute and a full honor guard.
The president shook a few hands, kissed first lady Melania goodbye and boarded a military helicopter for a short hop to Camp Humphreys, a nearby U.S. Army garrison where he’s scheduled for a quick lunch and a visit with servicemen and women.
Trump will be in the Seoul area for barely 24 hours, but he will cast a 6-foot, 2-inch shadow on the communist nation to the north.
He has clear differences with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, both on managing the North Korean nuclear standoff and on tense negotiations over a trade deal that the White House says harms American workers.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived Tuesday afternoon in South Korea, the second of five nations on his Asian itinerary this week and next
The president shook a few hands and then kissed Melania goodbye before boarding a military helicopter for a short hop to nearby Camp Humphreys
Trump has clear differences with South Korea’s liberal president Moon Jae-in; the pair are shown at the White House in June
Either crisis would be fodder enough for bilateral talks, a joint press conference and a speech to South Korea’s National Assembly.
But the one-two punch will make Trump’s brief time in the Land of the Morning Calm unlike his two-day stop in Japan, a longer stop that already has South Koreans feeling like Trump is playing favorites.
In addition to direct talks with Moon, the president also plans to visit a U.S. military base to the south of Seoul, and will hail its operation as a positive example of ‘burden-sharing’ since South Korea pays for some of its expenses – including the cost of relocating American troops there.
But his unsteady relations with the liberal South Korean president, whom he called a ‘fine gentleman’ in a lukewarm Tuesday morning tweet, could lead to uncomfortable moments unlike any witnessed as he brewed a warm bromance with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday and Monday.
The consequences of an arm’s-length relationship between Washington and Seoul could be destructive for both nations.
Air Force One landed at the Osan Airbase shortly after noon, greeted by a 21-cannon salute and a full honor guard
Trump’s visit to Seoul comes at a time when nuclear tensions are running high on the Korean peninsula
Trump has become close with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and is being criticized in Seoul for spending twice as much time in Tokyo as he plans to spend in the South Korean capital
In contrast with Trump’s effusive praise for Japan’s Shinzo Abe, the best he could muster for Moon Jae-in on Tuesday was a tweet calling him ‘a fine gentleman’
South Korea hosts more than 28,000 U.S. military troops and counts on the United States to insulate it from potential North Korean attacks.
And America needs open economic exchange lanes with the nation, which is its sixth-largest trade partner – but Trump wants it on his terms.
The U.S. is South Korea’s second-biggest partner, after only China.
At stake is the five-year-old United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement, known as KORUS, that Trump sees as a net loser for U.S. businesses.
America’s trade deficit with South Korea is on pace to reach $24 billion this year and ended 2016 at $27.7 billion, according to U.S. Censue Bureau numbers.
In 2011, before the KORUS pact went into force, that number stood at just $13.2 billion.
Candidate Trump called the agreement a ‘job-killer’ as he ran for president last year, and said that at the time it had already cost American manufacturers $40 billion in exports.
‘It’s a horrible deal,’ the president told Reuters in April, ‘and we are going to renegotiate that deal or terminate it.’
The president will address the South Korean national assembly and is expected to lay out a hard line against North Korea – even as President Moon is trying to negotiate with the belligerent communist North
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s territory starts just 35 miles from South Korea’s capital, putting South Korea in the position of having to be a front-row spectator as the nuclear status of its belligerent neighbor is decided by other countries
Trump warned during a bellicose September 19 speech to the United Nations General Assembly that he could ‘totally destroy’ North Korea if Kim Jong-un makes a menacing move toward the United States
KORUS was originally proposed by the George W. Bush administration in 2007. The initial plan was scrapped, only to be picked up by the Barack Obama White House and negotiated by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
While Trump’s aides work on opening up South Korea’s markets to more American-made cars, one likely way to even the trade score, the world will be carefully watching the commander-in-chief and his North Korean counterpart for signs of new ad hominem attacks.
Trump and Kim Jong-un have engaged in a war of words this year, sparked by the U.S. president’s threat to ‘totally destroy’ Kim’s country if he doesn’t stop testing nuclear-capable missiles and conducting underground atomic bomb tests.
Trump has taken to calling him ‘Little Rocket Man.’
In response, Kim called Trump ‘a frightened dog’ and a ‘gangster fond of playing with fire’ in an official statement.
The trans-pacific game of nuclear chicken has made the South Korean government nervous: Seoul itself sits just 35 miles from the border, and 25 million people live in its metropolitan expanses.
Even without nuclear weapons, South Korea is already in Kim’s striking range.
For this reason – and because he considers Trump unpredictable – Moon wants the U.S. to transfer control of South Korea’s troops back to his government.
Peace activists are ready for Trump’s visit to Seoul, staging demonstrations warning that the U.S. president’s provocations will result in a nuclear war
North Korean despot Kim Jong-un’s regime is racing to complete a nuclear missile that can reach the United States, prompting Trump to leave all military options on the table
Pictured is the South Korean National Assembly building, where Trump will speak Wednesday; he’s expected to deliver a message of solidarity with Seoul and angry warnings for Pyongyang
Under current agreements, South Korean forces would be under U.S. command if the North were to resume the war that ended with a 1953 armistice.
After Trump threatened ‘fire and fury’ against Pyongyang in August, Moon tut-tutted publicly that ‘no one should be allowed to decide on a military action on the Korean peninsula without South Korean agreement.’
The U.S. Defense Department has raised the strategic temperature by telling lawmakers that a ground invasion would be the only way to ensure ‘with complete certainty’ that North Korea couldn’t use nuclear weapons against the West.
On Monday in Tokyo, Trump branded North Korea a ‘menace’ and said the U.S. stands against the rogue regime’s ‘dangerous aggressions.’
‘Some people said that my rhetoric is very strong. But look what’s happened with very weak rhetoric over the last 25 years. Look where we are right now,’ the president said during a press conference with Abe.
He said at at the Yokota Air Base near Tokyo that the U.S. ‘will never yield, never waver and never falter in defense of our people.’
‘No one – no dictator, no regime and no nation – should underestimate, ever, American resolve.’