President Donald Trump lamented Tuesday in South Korea that he has to spend any time at all on the rogue regime to the nation’s north in the first year of his presidency.
North Korea’s nuclear ambitions ought to have been curbed 25 years ago, Trump said.
‘This is not the right time to be doing it, but that’s that I got. That’s what I got,’ Trump stated during a joint news conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Both presidents said they remain hopeful that sanctions will bring North Korea to the table.
Trump said North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has to be aware of the United States’ ‘unparalleled strength,’ reminding him that there are three U.S. aircraft carriers and a submarine in his backyard.
‘We have many things happening that we hope, we hope, in fact I’ll go a step further, we hope to God we never have to use,’ Trump said.
President Donald Trump lamented Tuesday in South Korea that he has to spend any time at all on the rogue regime to the nation’s north in the first year of his presidency
Tuesday in South Korea that he’s optimistic about his chances to stop North Korea from deploying a nuclear missile capable of reaching America’s allies.
‘I think we’re going to have lots of good answers for you over a period of time, and ultimately it will all work out,’ Trump said before a military operational briefing at Camp Humphreys, near Seoul.
‘It always works out. It has to work out!’
North Koran dictator Kim Jong-un hasn’t carried out a ballistic missile test since September, but there are real concerns at the Pentagon that he might conduct a test launch while Trump is nearby.
His previous tests have flown in the direction of Guam, a U.S. island territory, and directly over Japan.
Trump’s appearance Tuesday afternoon in South Korea marked his arrival in the second of five nations on his expansive Asian itinerary.
Air Force One landed at the Osan Air Base shortly after noon, greeted by a 21-cannon salute and a full honor guard.
S
U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in meet at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea Tuesday
Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-In pose prior to their meeting at presidential Blue House in Seoul
Trump receives a briefing from U.S. and South Korean military commanders at the U.S. Eighth Army Operation Command Center
‘Ultimately it will all work out,’ President Trump said Tuesday of the nuclear standoff brewing with North Korea; ‘It always works out. It has to work out!’
Trump (C) talks to military personnel while South Korean President Moon Jae-In (R) looks on at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul
At Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, Trump saluted officers and senior enlisted personnel – both Americans and South Koreans – before going inside to eat and plan strategy with his generals
‘Good food!’ Trump said, seated near President Moon Jae-in and in between American and South Korean soldiers – and he later boasted that he chose to eat with the troops rather than have ‘a beautiful, very fancy lunch’
The president shook hands with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, kissed first lady Melania goodbye and boarded a military helicopter with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
The pair then had a short hop to Camp Humphreys, the nearby U.S. Army garrison.
Trump saluted and greeted both American and South Korean military officers and senior enlisted personnel before boarding an armored limousine for a short ride across the tarmac to a waiting lunch.
‘I had a choice of having a beautiful, very fancy lunch, and I said “No, I want to eat with the troops.” And we ate with the troops,’ Trump said proudly.
‘And it was good eating. It was good eating. And I tell you, they’ve done a terrific job. Very impressive.’
South Korean President Moon Jae-in joined him at the mess-hall lunch. ‘Hello everybody!’ Trump boomed after he was greeted by applause. ‘Good food,’ he said.
The presidents stayed only a short time at the lunch before the military briefing, which included Naitonal Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who is now the White House chife of staff.
A pair of South Korean generals also took part, along with the head of U.S. forces in Korea, Gen. Vincent Brooks.
The president will later sit down with Moon at the Blue House, the nation’s presidential mansion, for bilateral talks in advance of a joint press conference later in the day.
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
This July 28, 2017 picture released from North Korea’s state-run news agency shows Kim Jong-un’s Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) being lauched at an undisclosed place in North Korea
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 for lunch with the troops and a military operational briefing
Trump, center right, and first lady Melania Trump are welcomed by South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha upon arrival at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, Tuesday
Air Force One landed at the Osan Air Base shortly after noon, greeted by a 21-cannon salute and a full honor guard
Trump (L) and First Lady Melania Trump (R) kiss after arrival at the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul
Melania sported a pair of purple suede Louboutin shoes as she arrived in South Korea on Tuesday
A full military honor guard and a rolled-out red carpet awaited the Trumps at Osan Air Base
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 Moon, both on managing the North Korean nuclear standoff and on tense negotiations over a trade deal that the White House says harms American workers.
Either crisis would be fodder enough for bilateral talks, a joint press conference and a speech to South Korea’s National Assembly.
Korean TV carried the Trumps’ arrival live from the moment he touched down, chronicling every moment with its own video feed
Police block protesters against U.S. President Donald Trump waiting for Trump’s motorcade to pass by in central Seoul, South Korea
A protester against U.S. President Donald Trump covers his face with a placard while waiting for Trump’s motorcade to pass by as police stand guard in central Seoul, South Korea
Trump has clear differences with South Korea’s liberal president Moon Jae-in; the pair are shown at the White House in June
North Korean despot Kim Jong-un is pictured inspecting an ICCM in this undated photo released by North Korea’s state-run news agency in July
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.
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’
The consequences of an arm’s-length relationship between Washington and Seoul could be destructive for both nations.
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in is more liberal than his Japanese counterpart, and more likely to negotiate with North Korea
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. Census 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
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 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.
Trump’s 11-day tour of Asia takes him to five countries
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.
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.
Trump surprised some politics-watchers over the weekend when he told a TV interviewer that he would be open to conducting direct talks with Kim – saying on Sinclair Broadcast Group’s ‘Full Measure’ program that he would be happy to ‘sit down with anybody’
‘I don’t think it’s strength or weakness, I think sitting down with people is not a bad thing,’ he said. ‘So I would certainly be open to doing that, but we’ll see where it goes. I think we’re far too early.’
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
Other demonstrators included supporters of Trump; they walk to a rally in central Seoul on Tuesday
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
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.’