President Trump wrapped up his marathon trip through Asia on Tuesday, citing progress on trade deals, greater respect in foreign capitals for U. S. power and prestige, and reassurance of allies over nuclear tensions with North Korea.
TOKYO — President Trump wrapped up his marathon trip through Asia on Tuesday, citing progress on trade deals, greater respect in foreign capitals for U. S. power and prestige, and reassurance of allies over nuclear tensions with North Korea .
As Mr. Trump departed an economic conference in The Philippines at the end of the 12-day trip, the longest by a U. S. president in 25 years, he described his efforts as “very fruitful.”
“We’ve made a lot of big progress on trade,” said Mr. Trump, pointing to business deals forged between U. S. and foreign companies. “We have deficits with almost everybody; those deficits are going to be cut very quickly and very substantially.”
Due to arrive in Washington late Tuesday night, the president said he will make major announcements on trade and North Korea on Wednesday at the White House .
While Mr. Trump ’s state visit to China was viewed as the marquee stop of his five-nation tour, the president’s high-stakes speech to South Korea’s national assembly on the North Korean nuclear threat was arguably the biggest moment of the trip. Analysts on the Korean Peninsula said Mr. Trump succeeded in lowering tensions while showing firm resolve in his demand to denuclearize North Korea.
After anxiety over Mr. Trump ’s earlier threat to meet North Korea ’s aggression with “fire and fury,” the president’s stop in South Korea was “short but effective,” said BJ Kim, a former South Korean diplomat who teaches at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.
“South Koreans were pleasantly surprised and felt suddenly reassured as they found in his words a new kind of Donald Trump who seems to actually understand the history, the countries and the people involved regarding the current North Korea crisis,” Mr. Kim told The Washington Times. “Before Trump ’s arrival, sense of anxiety was widely spread in Seoul .”
Prior to the speech, Mr. Kim said, “the biggest fear in Seoul has been the possibility of the U. S. bypassing South Korea, striking Pyongyang and thus inviting massive retaliation from the North.”
“After the Nov. 8 National Assembly speech, South Koreans are shedding their image of Donald Trump who haphazardly sees South Korea just another faraway country he does not want to understand,” he said. “The worries of sudden outbreak of a war have been considerably assuaged.”
Still, Mr. Trump couldn’t resist poking fun at unpredictable North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Twitter before returning home.
“Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’ Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend — and maybe someday that will happen!” the president tweeted.
