Tag: Donald Trump

A Korean researcher with a think tank has published an opinion article on why the South Korean government should take advantage of Trump’s offer to allow the ROK to develop nuclear weapons if he is elected President.  To break the status quo on the Korean peninsula it would take a policy that has the potential to really shake up the current security paradigm which the ROK developing nuclear weapons would definitely do:

Rather than criticizing Trump, Korea may announcethat it would not develop at this time, but prepare for development of nuclear and anti-nuclear weapons. While seriouslyand feverishly working on these weapons, Korea may ask China, as well as the U.S., to strongly intervene in North Korean affairs to abandon their nuclear programs as a condition for Korea to abandon its own nuclear programs.

In view of North Korea’s progress made in developing short-range missiles that can carry nuclear weapons, Trump’s view may well providea timely diplomatic cover for Korea to really improve its defensive posture and to put heavy pressure for North Korea to negotiate.

When the opponent is as vicious and sneaky as leaders of North Korea, who made complete fools out of Bill Clinton and Kim Dae-jung as well as all of Kim Dae-jung’s successors before Park Geunjye, Korea has to negotiate from the position of strength without which North Korea will clearly not give in. [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

Basically this advisor is stating in the interview that Trump has to say one thing on the campaign trail, but once elected President he will be more flexible on the policies he is campaigning on:

A President Donald Trump will neither abandon South Korea nor let the Asian ally defend itself against threats from North Korea, a top foreign policy adviser to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said.

Walid Phares, an international relations scholar who serves as Trump’s foreign policy brain, made the remark in an interview with Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News Television, stressing that Trump’s remarks, such as his call for Seoul to shoulder all costs for U.S. troop presence, should be taken only as an expression of “principles.”  (………..)

“At this point in time he is a candidate. He’s a Republican candidate, practically speaking. So, he will talk about principles, and those principles mean burden-sharing. He wants the South Korean government to share more,” Phares said. “There is a principle … that America alone cannot be defending the world. It does not mean that America wants to withdraw from the world.”

Trump will see “what the South Koreans can offer, or what the Japanese would offer, what our friends in the Middle East could offer. Then he would negotiate. He is good at negotiations,” Phares said of the call for defense burden-sharing.

Such negotiations do not mean Trump will abandon South Korea, Phares said.

“If South Korea is threatened by either North Korea, or other players, a Trump administration would be standing by the South Koreans. There is no idea that we’re going to let South Korea or Japan defend themselves against a threat,” he said.

Referring to Trump’s call for South Korea to shoulder all costs for American troop presence, Phares said that the real estate tycoon “wants to show the maximum” as a negotiator before settling for reality. And such maximum positions could evolve over time, he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest of the interview at the link, but the bottom line is that if Trump is elected the ROK government best be ready to pay more USFK cost sharing than the 50% they are paying now.  Considering Japan is currently paying 75% I would not be surprised if that is the number that Trump may want to settle on.

I am not sure why Trump continues to go after South Korea on this issue, when it comes to freeloading US allies South Korea is not the best example to use in my opinion:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Wednesday that South Korea should pay for all costs related to U.S. troop presence in the country.  Trump made the remark in an interview with CNN, reiterating his long-running argument that the U.S. should be prepared to let allies defend themselves unless they pay more for American defense support.  “Why not a 100 percent?” Trump said as the interviewer pointed out that Seoul already shoulders about 50 percent of the cost.

 

Asked if he meant that countries like South Korea, Japan and Germany should pick up all the expenses, Trump said, “Of course they should pick up all the expense. Why are we paying for this?”   Trump also said the U.S. should be “prepared to walk” unless allies pay more, referring apparently to the potential troop withdrawal. In that case, the countries should defend themselves “against North Korea (where) we have a maniac.”  “If they don’t take care of us properly, if they don’t respect us enough to take care of us properly, then you know what will have to happen? Very simple, they’re going to have to defend themselves,” he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

In a Trump Presidency a big change for the military will be that General Officers will no longer be allowed to talk to the media:

If he becomes commander in chief, Donald Trump won’t let military generals speak to “the dishonest press,” out of fear they’ll spill national security secrets.  “I don’t want them saying things like ‘our nation has never been so ill-prepared.’ Even though it’s true, I don’t want the enemy knowing that.”“A general should not be on television,” the Republican front-runner told a crowd of supporters during a rally at Carmel, Indiana, on Monday. “I don’t want our generals on television. I will prohibit them.  [Military Times]

You can read more at the link.

Have you ever wondered what Koreans think of Donald Trump?  Well someone found out:

Hat Tip: Reddit Korea

https://twitter.com/ZacharyKeck/status/718447705182314496

With the nuclear threat North Korea is building and the continued territorial aggressiveness of the Chinese developing nuclear weapons in both South Korea and Japan may happen eventually anyway:

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has reiterated that he is open to allowing South Korea and Japan to have nuclear weapons so as to defend themselves against threats from North Korea.

Trump made the remark during a town hall meeting televised on CNN Tuesday night, stressing that the North has nuclear weapons and the U.S. is no longer rich enough to defend other wealthy nations, like Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

“Can I be honest are you? Maybe it’s going to have to be time to change, because so many people, you have Pakistan has it, you have China has it. You have so many other countries are now having it,” Trump said, referring to nuclear weapons.

“At some point we have to say, you know what, we’re better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea. We’re better off, frankly, if South Korea is going to start to protect itself,” Trump said, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Asked again if he means it’s OK for Japan, South Korea and even Saudi Arabia to have nuclear weapons, Trump said, “It’s going to happen anyway. It’s going to happen anyway. It’s only a question of time. They’re going to start having them or we have to get rid of them entirely.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I have always said that Trump’s claims that South Korea is getting a free ride is inaccurate and Ambassador Lippert is calling him out on it as well.  Trump should specify what he thinks South Korea should pay if he wants to criticize like this because South Korea pays a lot more than many other nations getting a free ride off of the US defense umbrella.  With that said Trump probably fully knows that South Korea pays a lot already and is just repeating the claim that resonates with low information voters:

U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Mark Lippert on Monday dismissed accusations by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump that South Korea is paying little to keep American troops on its soil.

Without naming Trump, Lippert cited various reasons why the allegations aren’t true, including the fact that South Korea shoulders 55 percent of all non-personnel costs and increases its defense spending by 3 to 5 percent annually.

“We feel very good about the resource sharing that we and the Republic of Korea do together as an alliance,” the ambassador said during a meeting with members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea. “It is remarkable.”

Lippert was responding to a request for comments on a “U.S. political candidate’s” contentions that the country receives little from South Korea in exchange for its support.

Trump has made repeated claims that South Korea is getting a free ride on defense, saying recently that the U.S. is “constantly sending our ships, sending our planes, doing our war games” but being “reimbursed a fraction of what this is all costing.” He also told The New York Times he would withdraw American troops from South Korea and Japan unless they boost their financial contributions to the upkeep of the U.S. military presence.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The frightening and contradictory ways that Donald Trump would lead America’s armed forces. https://t.co/T7worzhzfQ pic.twitter.com/TGtzIYi9cf

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) February 5, 2016

If he some how gets elected it will be interesting to see if Trump is able to back up his big talk because getting China to do something on North Korea is not as easy as he makes it sound:

Calling North Korea a “disgrace,” Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Sunday that China should solve the problem as Pyongyang’s main benefactor or be forced to see its trade with the United States suffer.

It was the latest in a series of remarks that Trump has been making since the North’s nuclear test last week to underscore his point that China has “total control” over Pyongyang, and the U.S. should force Beijing to fix the problem of the North.

“I think North Korea is a disgrace,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I would get China, and I would say, ‘Get in there and straighten it out. You’d better straighten it out.’ And, if you don’t straighten it out, we’re going to have trouble because we have power over China. We have trade power over China.”

Trump also said that while Iran is expected to have nuclear weapons due to what he calls a “stupid agreement” that the U.S. and other world powers concluded with Tehran last year, North Korea already has “very dangerous weapons of some sort.”

In another FOX TV interview, Trump again said that China is the one that should fix the North Korea problem.

“People ask me a number of questions. They were asking me how do you solve North Korea? Well, China should be solving North Korea; they have total power,” Trump said.   [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.