White House: THAAD no major topic for Moon's summit with Trump
WASHINGTON -- The deployment of the US THAAD missile defense system won't be a major topic for this week's summit talks between President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump, a senior White House official said Wednesday.
"President Moon has been very clear in recent days. His government and his new foreign minister have been clear in stating their view that there is a process involved in completing the deployment of that system. They've both said that they don't see that should not be equated with a reversal of the decision to deploy THAAD," the official said during a briefing to preview the summit set for Friday.
"So, I don't think that that is necessarily a major point of conversation," he said.
Should the issue come up, it will do so as "a routine matter of housekeeping in the bilateral relationship," he said.
The official was referring to Seoul's decision to suspend the deployment of an additional four THAAD launchers pending an environmental assessment. South Korea has rejected speculation the halt might be a precursor to reversing the decision on THAAD deployment altogether.
The White House official said that Trump wants to have frank discussions on trade.
"His view is that there are aspects of the trade relationship that aren't in balance. He will be, I think, forthright in talking about things like US autos and the fact that there are still some barriers to US auto sales in Korea; certainly, the enormous amount of steel that sometimes ends up being surplus Chinese steel that comes to the United States via South Korea," the official said.
Though South Korea's trade surplus with the US is shrinking and US exports rising, there is still a "large gap," the official said.
"It's caught the president's eye. And I think that he'll talk about that," he said.
On North Korea, the official said that the US wants to stay closely coordinated with the South, adding that it doesn't matter that Moon's government is from a different political party than the previous government.
"The similarities in our approaches are already evident. I mean, if we look at what President Moon has said to date, both in terms of the overarching goal of denuclearization. He made a comment the other day about, you know, the engagement that he would eventually seek with North Korea, being very similar to what President Trump has talked about," he said.
"And that is engagement when the conditions are right. And until they are right, and even once the conditions may present themselves to enter into dialogue, we must maintain and actually increase pressure on North Korea. That's President Moon's approach. It's President Trump's approach. So, we're actually quite comfortable with where the two governments are right now," he said.
Trump's policy is to substantially increase economic and diplomatic pressure on the North in order to change its calculus to have substantive talks once it shows they're willing to begin reducing the threat, the official said.
"Right now, we see no evidence that they are seeking to reduce the threat, in the form of nuclear weapons, in the form of missile -- ballistic missile technology, including work being conducted on an ICBM capability that's clearly designed -- explicitly designed to threaten Americans here at home," he said.
The official also called for China to do more to pressure the North.
"China is still falling far short of what it could bring to bear on North Korea in terms of pressure," he said. "The salient point here is that we very much want to see China do more than -- than it's willing to do. While we do recognize that China's doing more than it has done in the past.
The official praised South Korea as a "model ally" in terms of defense cost sharing.
"South Korea, in many respects, is the model ally because they are spending somewhere on the order of 2.7 percent of their GDP on their defense," he said. "South Korea has paid an enormous amount of money to help host US troops in their country, including through things like -- is it Camp Humphreys? -- the new base south of Seoul, which 92 percent of that cost was shouldered by South Korea."
Burden-sharing is part of the conversation Trump has with allies, but the US "shouldn't view South Korea as somehow laggard on that front," the official said. He also said that he doesn't sense that there's "any significant trouble on that front." (Yonhap)
-
Tesla issues recall for 9,100 Model X carsDirectX 12 MultiHow a line in the 'Poker Face' finale solves one of the show's very first mysteriesSouth Korea secured 'decisive' evidence to prove North Korea's DMZ gunfire accidental'Hyundai Way': Auto giant's W121tr plan aims to seize mobility market leadBen Carson says Trump cleared him to receive experimental treatment for the coronavirus.到基层去!江门1100名青年人才来到农村基层助推“百千万工程”Falling births a concern for North Korea, tooCrowdStrike outage is still causing hundreds of flight cancellations dailyGeorgia hand recount confirms Biden as winner.
下一篇:I went to an offline dating event for singles. Here's how it went.
- ·Apple Intelligence is now a little easier to get outside the U.S.
- ·US official renews calls for North Korea to abandon nukes
- ·Miller tops Portuguese MotoGP practice
- ·'Quordle' today: See each 'Quordle' answer and hints for March 7
- ·雨城区疾控中心提示:科学补碘 防治碘缺乏病
- ·汕尾展团风采·海丰篇|预制菜、丝苗米、莲花山茶、甘薯、大豆、海葡萄来了!
- ·Mbappe promises not to change
- ·Spurs should hold onto Conte 'as long as possible' – Doherty
- ·'Terminator Zero' creators find fresh life in sci
- ·Raducanu faces new injury concern
- ·De Bruyne 'honoured' to be named Belgium skipper
- ·Ben Carson says Trump cleared him to receive experimental treatment for the coronavirus.
- ·US Open 2024 livestream: How to watch US Open tennis for free
- ·North Korea says Kim inspected firing drill
- ·TikTok's 'bold glamour' filter: What it is and how to get it
- ·Donald Trump goes all
- ·iPhone 16 Pro new color will reportedly be Desert Titanium
- ·Top nuclear envoys of S. Korea, US discuss NK threat in Seoul
- ·South Korea secured 'decisive' evidence to prove North Korea's DMZ gunfire accidental
- ·免费“陈皮公交”发车啦!带你畅游第六届新会陈皮文化节
- ·World's first green ammonia plant is now open for business
- ·A List of Oculus Rift & HTC Vive VR Games to Look Out for in 2016
- ·'Quordle' today: See each 'Quordle' answer and hints for March 7
- ·Georgia hand recount confirms Biden as winner.
- ·CrowdStrike outage is still causing hundreds of flight cancellations daily
- ·Bing now has 100 million daily users thanks to its AI chatbot
- ·Apple finally sends out payments for MacBook's butterfly keyboard settlement
- ·志愿服务暖冬行 文化下乡暖民心
- ·Ben Carson says Trump cleared him to receive experimental treatment for the coronavirus.
- ·“连平·忠信花生”点亮广州塔,是河源农产品品牌首例
- ·Deceased K
- ·Wordle today: Here's the answer, hints for March 11
- ·The Best Gaming Concept Art of 2016
- ·在汕尾吃饭,碗里就是一片海|舌尖上的汕尾·海产品篇
- ·How to Backup Your Gmail Account
- ·N.Korea dismisses legitimacy of sending US nuclear submarine