ZCZC
BFF-03
US-NKOREA-SKOREA-NUCLEAR-ARMY-POLITICS
Trump sides with NKorea’s Kim on war games amid new missile tests
WASHINGTON, Aug 10, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump said Friday
that he agreed with Kim Jong Un’s opposition to US-South Korea war games,
refusing to criticize missile tests that Pyongyang said are a “solemn
warning” over the exercises.
Trump said he had received a “beautiful letter” from Kim expressing
Pyongyang’s anger over the joint war games, which spurred the series of tests
of extremely fast, short-range guided missiles.
But hours after Trump said he foresaw having another meeting with Kim,
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired two more apparent
rockets into the East Sea, or Sea of Japan.
It was the fifth round of missile launches in two weeks, and came just days
after US and South Korean forces began their defense readiness exercises,
which Kim’s government has said are a “flagrant violation” of the diplomatic
process between Pyongyang, Washington and Seoul.
– Keeping the door open –
The newest launch came after Trump strained to keep the door open for
denuclearization negotiations with Kim after months in which no progress has
been made.
While other US officials have called the launches “provocations,” Trump
said he agreed with the North Korean leader and was hoping to meet him again,
with talks having been frozen for months.
“I got a very beautiful letter from Kim Jong Un yesterday,” Trump said. “It
was a very positive letter.”
“He wasn’t happy with the war games,” Trump said, referring to the US-South
Korean military exercises.
“As you know, I’ve never liked it either. I’ve never been a fan. And you
know why? I don’t like paying for it.”
Hours later, the White House had no immediate comment on the newest rocket
tests.
“We are aware of reports of a missile launch from North Korea, and we
continue to monitor the situation. We are consulting closely with our
Japanese and South Korean allies,” a senior administration official told AFP.
– Faltering nuclear talks –
Trump has appeared determined to secure a denuclearization agreement with
North Korea ahead of the November 2020 US presidential elections, despite
faltering talks since he first met Kim in a historic ice-breaking summit in
Singapore in June 2018.
At the time, the US temporarily froze military exercises with South Korea
and Trump claimed Kim had agreed to give up his newly-acquired nuclear
weapons and long-range ballistic missiles.
But Pyongyang has maintained that the United States must lift its economic
embargo and sanctions on the country to make any progress in nuclear talks.
Yet even after their abortive second summit in Hanoi in February, Trump has
been loath to criticize the North Korean leader.
In June he offered an olive branch by meeting Kim in the Panmunjon truce
village on the North Korea-South Korea border, the first sitting US president
ever to step inside the North.
And on Friday, he said the missile launches weren’t important.
“I’ll say it again. There have been no nuclear tests. The missile tests
have all been short-range. No ballistic missile tests, no long-range
missiles,” Trump said.
That contrasted with his tough words Friday for Washington’s key East Asia
allies, who have been locked in a searing trade row.
“South Korea and Japan are fighting all the time,” he said. “They have to
get along with each other. If they don’t get along, what are we doing?”
– Missile ‘provocations’ –
But others in the Trump administration sound less enthusiastic about Kim’s
missiles.
After Pyongyang’s fourth launch early this week, Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo said Washington was ready to resume talks, but that the target of the
“full, final denuclearization of North Korea” had not changed.
A senior State Department official who refused to be named told journalists
last week that the missile tests were an impediment to peace.
“The missile launches, any kind of provocations, are not helpful to
advancing the cause of diplomacy,” the official said.
The official said there was a unified message going to the North Koreans
from China and Russia that they need to “cease the provocations, reengage in
diplomacy to achieve complete denuclearization.”
BSS/AFP/GMR/0844 hrs