 |
|
Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks at the White House daily press briefing on Jan. 2. (AFP/Yonhap News)
|
US National Security Adviser also critical of Kim Jong-un’s outreach toward South Korea
While US President Donald Trump has not expressed his outright opposition to efforts to resume inter-Korean dialogue, he is showing a certain degree of caution and has indicated he will keep an eye on future developments. As Trump kicked off his first workday of the New Year, he got on Twitter on the morning of Jan. 2 to write, “Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see! “Sanctions and ‘other’ pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea,” Trump wrote in the same tweet. These remarks can be taken to mean that Trump is open to the idea of inter-Korean dialogue per se, but that he will wait to see North Korea’s response and the results of the talks before making a final decision about whether or not they are in the US’s interests. In a later tweet that afternoon, Trump appeared to be picking a fight: “North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times….I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” In an interview broadcast by Voice of America (VOA) on Jan. 3, US National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster was critical of Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s address, which he regarded as having the clear and simple purpose of creating distance between South Korea and the US. McMaster flatly stated that this would not work and that Kim’s provocative behavior was only making the US and South Korea closer allies. The only reason that North Korea is pursuing nuclear weapons, McMaster contended, is to intimidate and coerce the US into leaving the Korean Peninsula and northeast Asia. During the daily press briefing on Jan. 2, US State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert acknowledged that Kim Jong-un might attempt to drive a wedge between South Korea and the US, in an apparent reference to media reports arguing that this is what Kim’s New Year’s address was designed to do. But Nauert declared that Kim’s attempt would not be successful. She acknowledged that South and North Korea were obviously free to hold talks if they so desired, but said she was very skeptical about whether Kim Jong-un would sit down at the table for serious talks. White House Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the US was communicating closely with South Korea on how to make a concerted response and that the US would work with the South to apply the maximum pressure and to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the ultimate goal shared by both sides. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley also took a hardline stance, declaring that the US would not take any dialogue seriously unless North Korea took steps to dismantle its entire nuclear arsenal. By Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
