President Trump came closer than ever to the North Korean nuclear standoff Tuesday, arriving in South Korea for security talks with the key U.S. ally as the regime in Pyongyang accused Mr. Trump of driving tensions on the peninsula “to the extremes.”
The president will tour the main garrison for U.S. troops stationed in South Korea at Camp Humphreys, about 60 miles from the border, and hold talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in as he seeks to increase pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
On a stop in Japan, Mr. Trump said the U.S. has run out of the “strategic patience” of his predecessors, after decades of North Korean weapons buildups and threatening actions, including the systematic kidnapping of Japanese citizens. He has taunted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as “little rocket man” and warned that the U.S. would “totally destroy” the North if Pyongyang attacks first.
“Some people say my rhetoric is very strong, but look what has happened with very weak rhetoric in the last 25 years,” Mr. Trump said in Tokyo. “The regime continues development of its unlawful weapons programs, including its illegal nuclear tests and outrageous launches of ballistic missiles directly overly Japanese territory. We will not stand for that.”
Mr. Trump asked Congress for $5.9 billion of emergency spending for missile defense Monday to counter the threat from North Korea.
The budget request sent to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan included $4 billion to enhance missile defense systems, $700 million to repair two damaged Navy warships and $1.2 billion to support the administration’s South Asia strategy.
“This request supports additional efforts to detect, defeat, and defend against any North Korean use of ballistic missiles against the United States, its deployed forces, allies, or partners,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Pyongyang, which tested a hydrogen bomb in September and has conducted at least 15 missile tests this year, blamed Mr. Trump on Monday for driving up tensions in the region.
“No one can predict when the lunatic old man of the White House, lost to senses, will start a nuclear war against” North Korea, the regime’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a statement. “The U.S. should not expect us to make any change.”
Unlike President Obama in 2012, Mr. Trump is not expected to make a trip to the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea on his two-day visit. A White House official said there likely isn’t time for that excursion, although the DMZ is less than a 30-minute helicopter flight from Seoul.
A South Korean spy agency reported last week there was “active movement” surrounding a missile research facility in Pyongyang. Vehicles were detected at the facility, renewing fears a test is imminent with Mr. Trump visiting.
South Koreans are also bracing for the possibility that Mr. Trump will renew his criticism of Mr. Moon over his support for diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang — something the U.S. president once called “appeasement” — and will again threaten to pull out of a free trade pact between the two countries.
On a personal level, Mr. Trump and Mr. Moon have not developed the same close rapport as Mr. Trump has with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe or even China’s President Xi Jinping. Part of Mr. Moon’s mission during the visit will likely be to strengthen his personal ties with Mr. Trump, said Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution.
“Now poor President Moon is playing catch-up ball because everyone acknowledges that he’s not bonding quite as much with Donald Trump as the rest of the region,” said Mr. O’Hanlon. He said Mr. Moon could face pressure “to deliver a stronger relationship” whereas “in most other parts of the world, people are trying to keep their distance from Donald Trump.”
Mr. Trump has accused South Korea of not paying its fair share for the cost of U.S. forces in the country. A South Korean presidential official said Mr. Trump’s visit to Camp Humphreys would be a chance to inform him that Seoul paid more than 90 percent of some $10 billion in land and construction costs for the base.
The president also will hold talks with Mr. Moon on Tuesday at South Korea’s presidential Blue House, hold a joint news conference and attend a state dinner. He will wrap up the Korea leg of his visit Wednesday with an address to the National Assembly.
During his visit to Japan — the first stop on Mr. Trump’s 12-day, five-nation swing through Asia — the president predicted that Mr. Abe’s government would soon be able to intercept North Korean missiles with the help of U.S. military hardware.
“He will shoot them out of the sky when he completes the purchase of lots of additional military equipment from the United States,” the president said of Mr. Abe. “The prime minister is going to be purchasing massive amounts of military equipment, as he should. And we make the best military equipment by far.”
Before leaving Japan, Mr. Trump and first lady Melania Trump met with the families of Japanese citizens kidnapped by the North Korean regime, and Mr. Trump referred to the death of American student Otto Warmbier to bolster his case for a tough approach toward Pyongyang.
The president urged Mr. Kim to release all hostages, saying it would send a positive message to the world.
“It’s a very, very sad number of stories that we’ve heard,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s a tremendous disgrace. They were abducted, in all cases, by North Korea. And we will work with Prime Minister Abe on trying to get them back to their loved ones.”
North Korea has acknowledged taking 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, but claims they all died or have been released. The Japanese government says many more were kidnapped, and that some may still be alive.
⦁ S.A. Miller contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire-service reports.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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