Will Trump meet N. Korean leader?

Ko Dong-hwan – The Korea Times

Will U.S. president-elect Donald Trump meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un?

The question has become one of the most urgent reality check factors in Korea because the Republican candidate repeatedly mentioned how he will deal with the nuclear-armed communist state during his presidential campaign and before that.

In 2000, when Trump first ran for the presidency, he said in his book “The America We Deserve” that he backed a surgical strike against North Korea’s nuclear facilities.

“What would I do in North Korea? Fair question. It’s easy to point out the problem, but what should be done to solve it? Am I ready to bomb this reactor? You’re damned right,” Trump said.

As he began his 2016 presidential campaign, he showed his animosity to Kim with vulgar expressions.

“ISIS is a big problem, Russia’s a problem, China’s a problem. We’ve got a lot of problems. By the way, the maniac in North Korea is a problem. He actually has nuclear weapons, right? That’s a problem,” Trump said, referring to Kim, during a campaign speech in South Carolina in December 2015.

In January, Trump also referred to Kim as a “total nut job” and a “madman playing around with the nukes.” (But he also said it was “amazing” for the young leader to keep control of the country.)

Trump also identified North Korea as a problem for China, not the U.S.

“I would get China to make that guy disappear, in one form or another, very quickly,” Trump said in February on the CBS TV program “This Morning.”

“China has absolute control of North Korea. They won’t say it, but they do. And they should make that problem disappear.”

Trump repeated the idea during his campaign in Virginia in September.

“They’re very belligerent,” Trump said, referring to North Korea. “They have no respect for our country, none whatsoever. And we have a situation that’s a potential catastrophe. We have somebody that truly does have nuclear weapons and nuclear capability. The carrier maybe is not there yet, but it soon will be.

“We have a man (Kim) who is, I mean, he took over — 25 years old, I guess, or around that — and now it looks like he’s getting more and more hostile. And what I would do very simply is say, ‘China, this is your baby. This is your problem. You solve the problem.’ China can solve that problem.”

Trump also showed his intention to talk to Kim in person if elected president.

In his interview with Reuters in May, Trump said he would “speak to Kim” and “would have no problem speaking to him.”

In June, when he was campaigning in Redding, California, Trump reaffirmed his intention to talk to Kim, criticizing U.S. foreign policy experts for not negotiating with the North Korean leader.

“They say if I have qualms about bargaining with North Korea,” Trump said. “No problems at all. Who in the world cares about it?

“I may not go to North Korea but will negotiate with it. They (the critical experts) say ‘we would never, ever, talk (with the North).’ How foolish they are!”

In his Atlanta campaign the same month, Trump said he was prepared to talk to Kim “over a hamburger” about giving up his nuclear weapons program.

“I wouldn’t go there, that I can tell you,” Trump said. “If he came here, I’d accept him, but I wouldn’t give him a state dinner like we do for China and all these other people that rip us off when we give them these big state dinners.

“We give them state dinners like you’ve never seen. We shouldn’t have dinners at all. We should be eating a hamburger on a conference table, and we should make better deals with China and others.”

So Se-pyong, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations mission and international organizations in Geneva, however, downplayed Trump’s remarks about meeting Kim.

“It is up to the decision of my supreme leader whether he decides to meet or not, but I think his idea of talk is nonsense,” Reuters quoted So as saying in Geneva. “It’s for utilization of the presidential election, that’s all. A kind of a propaganda or advertisement … This is useless, just a gesture for the presidential election.”

In June, North Korea endorsed Trump’s comments about withdrawing U.S. troops from the South unless Seoul pays more of the cost of keeping the troops on the peninsula.

Rodong Shinmun, the North Korean ruling party’s official mouthpiece, said Trump’s comments were causing anxiety in South Korea. It said the South Korean government “should stop living as a servant of foreign forces and come back to the side of the Korean nation.”