« It undermines an ally’s confidence and it really gives aid and sustenance to North Korea, » an expert said of the president’s latest comments.
President Donald Trump, frustrated with North Korea’s rapidly advancing nuclear arsenal, has publicly raged at nations he says have not done enough to rein in the antagonistic dictatorship.
China has frequently earned his scorn, but Trump’s focus of late has included another ― unexpected ― target: South Korea, a longtime U. S. ally whose new president, Moon Jae-in, has pushed for peace talks with his country’s northerly neighbor.
“South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, ” Trump tweeted on Sunday after the rogue regime conducted its most powerful test yet of a nuclear weapon.
Trump also has continued to sow doubts about the future of the U. S.-South Korea free trade deal.
His actions underscore that he is a president versed more in hyperbolic threats and less in diplomacy, experts say, a dynamic that could end up handing North Korea a piece of non-nuclear ammunition it’s been denied for almost 70 years: turmoil between Seoul and Washington.
“It was just a totally unnecessary move, ” Evans Revere, a former principal deputy assistant secretary of state who specializes in North Korea, told HuffPost about Trump’s latest comments. “It undermines an ally’s confidence and it really gives aid and sustenance to North Korea. One of their goals is to try and drive a wedge between us.”
Trump’s latest barbs echo those he’s lobbed at China, Pyongyang’s only real ally and its prime trading partner, since he took office in January.
“They do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk, ” Trump tweeted about the Chinese government after North Korea tested its first successful intercontinental ballistic missile in July. “China could easily solve this problem!”
Even with Moon’s ongoing efforts to bring North Korea and its bombastic leader, Kim Jong Un, to the negotiating table, South Korea has taken measures designed to show its toughness.
South Korea drilled potential “ decapitation raids ” this year that could target the north’s leadership, and the country’s military has made preparations to attack North Korean nuclear facilities. Both U. S. and South Korean forces have also staged huge joint military drills annually to defend against an invasion.
