Voice of America:
After winning the U.S. presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump has tried to reassure allies in Northeast Asia that are apprehensive at the possibility he may follow through on the radical policy changes he suggested during the campaign.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke to the president-elect to stress the need for close cooperation between their two nations to maintain peace and stability in Asia, according to an official in Tokyo. Abe is also planning to meet with Trump in November before traveling to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru.
During a phone call with South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Thursday, the U.S. president-elect said, “We are with you all the way, and we will not waver,” according to a statement from the Seoul presidential office.
During the presidential campaign, the Republican nominee refused to say if he would unconditionally support the longstanding U.S. extended deterrence policy to defend allies in Asia against a North Korean nuclear attack.
Instead, he voiced sharp criticism of South Korea and Japan for not bearing enough of the financial burden for American forces stationed in their countries. And Trump threatened to pull out troops and allow regional allies to acquire their own nuclear weapons if they could not come to better financial terms.
The South Korean Defense Ministry said Thursday the division of defense costs from their perspective is fair and has been determined by negotiations that included the current U.S. administration, the U.S. forces in Korea and Congress.
Nor is Seoul willing to pay for the U.S. missile defense system THAAD to be deployed in Korea, said Defense Ministry Spokesman Moon Sang-kyun.
“We already have expressed many times that we are not willing to purchase it. THAAD has been already decided between the administrations of South Korea and the U.S., and is proceeding normally, so we judge that there will be no such problem,” he said.
North Korean state media has urged Trump to help unify the Korean peninsula by withdrawing American forces from South Korea. During the campaign, Trump indicated he would consider this option if Washington and Seoul could not agree on a fairer burden-sharing agreement.
An editorial about Trump appeared in the DPRK Today state media outlet. It also called him a “wise politician” and “far-sighted presidential candidate.”
The president-elect’s perceived willingness to consider an unconventional approach to regional security in Asia may create new possibilities for negotiations that have stalled over the North’s repeated nuclear and missile tests, the U.S.-led efforts to increase sanctions against Pyongyang, and China’s reluctance to impose harsh measures that might cause instability at its border or the collapse of its ally.
But North Korea analyst Van Jackson says it also comes with risk, as the North could read any friction among U.S. allies as a lack of resolve….
