Trump Said He’s Not Bothered by North Korea's Recent Missile Tests
Trump Not Bothered by North Korea's Recent Missile Test Launches
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he wasn’t bothered by recent North Korean ballistic missile tests his national security adviser labeled a violation of UN resolutions, adding that sanctions on the country give him time to reach a disarmament deal with Kim Jong Un.
Trump said he believes the North Korean leader wants to build up his country’s economy, and that giving up nuclear weapons is a way to do that. The U.S. president, who’s on a state visit to Japan, spoke Monday after a summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.
Kim “believes like I do that North Korea has tremendous economic potential, like perhaps few other developing nations anywhere in the world, and I think that he’s looking to develop that way,” Trump said at a joint news conference with Abe. “He knows that with nuclear, that’s never going to happen. Only bad can happen. He understands that.”
Abe has said he was open to talks with Kim without preconditions, which would include not making any demands around the two countries’ longstanding stalemate over North Korea’s abductions of Japanese nationals. If they were to meet, it would be the third summit between the neighbors, following meetings Japan’s then-leader Junichiro Koizumi held with Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, in 2002 and 2004.
Abe also said that the launches violated UN resolutions.
“Japan is North Korea’s neighbor, so naturally we feel the greatest threat. As the leader of that country, Japan, I support President Trump’s actions and plans and I want to give my assistance,” Abe said at the briefing.
Fresh Doubt
North Korea test-fired short-range ballistic missiles on May 4 and May 9, its most significant military operations since November 2017, when it fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that weapons experts said could hit all of the U.S. The launches cast new doubt on Trump’s effort to secure a disarmament deal with Kim.
National Security Adviser John Bolton told reporters in Tokyo on Saturday before Trump’s arrival that this month’s launches violated United Nations resolutions banning ballistic missile tests, making him the first senior Trump aide to make such an assessment. He nevertheless said the U.S. was eager to restart working-level talks.
Trump tweeted on Sunday that the firing of “some small weapons” this month “disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me.” North Korea’s foreign ministry spokesman condemned Bolton as “war-obsessed,” according to its official Korea Central News Agency on Monday.
While ballistic missile testing is banned by resolutions pushed by Trump’s administration, the U.S. has tamped down talk of discussing the violations with the UN Security Council, according to two Security Council diplomats who asked not to be identified.
Stalled Talks
Trump has touted his negotiations with Kim as a major diplomatic achievement, and said in Tokyo that Kim has had no nuclear testing for two years. “I’m in no rush at all. Sanctions remain,” he said. “A lot of good things are happening.”
Talks between the U.S. and North Korea have stalled since Trump abruptly ended a summit with Kim in Hanoi in February, saying the North Korean wanted too much in terms of sanctions relief and offered too little disarmament in return. Kim has threatened to take action if the U.S, doesn’t change its stance by the end of the year on the sanctions choking his state’s paltry economy.
--With assistance from Isabel Reynolds and Sophie Jackman.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Washington at jepstein32@bloomberg.net;Shannon Pettypiece in Washington at spettypiece@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz, Karen Leigh
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