TOKYO (WASHINGTON POST) – The United States’ closest allies in Asia seemed blindsided by President Donald Trump’s latest outburst against North Korea, in which he threatened not just to act against Kim Jong Un’s regime but to destroy an entire country of 25 million people..
TOKYO (WASHINGTON POST) – The United States’ closest allies in Asia seemed blindsided by President Donald Trump’s latest outburst against North Korea, in which he threatened not just to act against Kim Jong Un’s regime but to destroy an entire country of 25 million people.
In his maiden speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday (Sept 19), Trump derided Kim as “rocket man” and said the United States would “totally destroy North Korea” if needed to protect its allies.
Those allies, Japan and South Korea, were silent on Trump’s threat to bring war to their neighborhood, while China and Russia both warned that Trump risked fueling tensions.
China’s nationalist Global Times newspaper ran a cartoon captioned “Bully pulpit” showing Trump holding a megaphone, shouting “America First,” while the state-owned China Daily newspaper said Trump’s speech was “full of sound and fury.”
“Today’s dangerous deadlock has been the result of Pyongyang’s and Washington’s persistent pursuit of their own interests in disregard of other countries’ efforts to persuade the two antagonists to talk,” the China Daily wrote in an editorial Wednesday morning.
“His threat to ‘totally destroy’ (North Korea) if need be will, therefore, likely worsen the already volatile situation.”
The silence from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was particularly telling because he has been eager to agree with Trump’s every utterance on dealing with North Korea.
A spokesman for Abe, Motosada Matano, declined to comment on Trump’s speech.
South Korean President Moon Jae In, whom Trump accused of trying to “appease” North Korea by wanting to talk to the regime, has also been trying hard in recent weeks to show he is in synch with the American president.
Moon’s spokesman pointedly avoided reacting to Trump’s “total destruction” line, saying the speech underscored the urgency of dealing with North Korea and that Seoul believed Trump remained committed to peace.
“We believe he expressed a firm and specific stance regarding the important issue of maintaining peace and security now facing the international community and the United Nations,” the spokesman, Park Soo Hyun, said in a statement.
“Also, we believe he clearly showed how seriously the US government takes this issue by allocating an unprecedentedly long period of time to address the North Korean nuclear and North Korean issues in his UN address as a US president,” he said.
