North Korea poses a worldwide threat that needs worldwide action, President Donald Trump said in Seoul Tuesday, but insisted "we are making a lot of progress" in reining in the rogue state. The US leader, standing alongside his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-In, reiterated he was prepared to use the full range of American military might to halt Pyongyang's march towards becoming a full-fledged nuclear power. But he added: "It makes sense for North Korea to come to the table to make a deal that is good for the people of North Korea and the people of the world."
Trump's tone in Seoul, whose 10 million inhabitants would find themselves on the front line of any conflict, was in marked contrast to previous rhetoric. Only a day earlier, Trump had declared in Tokyo on the first leg of his Asia tour that the time was over for "strategic patience" with Pyongyang, which in September carried out its most powerful nuclear test to date. Trump has traded personal insults and threats of war with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, raising fears of possible US military action and rapid escalation. But in the South Korean capital, just 35 miles south of the Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula, the US president was reassuring.
"Ultimately, it will all work out," he said. "It always works out. It has to work out." North Korea, he said, was "a worldwide threat that requires a worldwide action", but added: "I think we aare making a lot of progress. Chinese President Xi Jinping - whom he has often described as holding the key to disarming the North - has been "very, very helpful", he said, expressing hopes Russia would be similarly co-operative.
Trump goes on China Wednesday after addressing the South Korean parliament. "We are going to have an exciting day tomorrow for many reasons that people will find out," he said at a state dinner Tuesday night, without elaborating. Trump arrived from Japan, where he secured Tokyo's full support for Washington's stance that "all options are on the table" regarding Pyongyang, and declared its nuclear ambitions "a threat to the civilised world and international peace and stability". He enjoyed three days of near-bromance with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, calling him "wonderful" after a round of golf and describing US-Japan ties as "really extraordinary".
After a relaxed few days in Tokyo, Seoul is a more complicated stop for the mercurial US president. Trump's relationship with the liberal-leaning Moon has been cool, and the former real estate magnate has railed at South Korean moves to engage its neighbour - something he has previously labelled "appeasement". But he described Moon as a "fine gentleman" in a tweet early Tuesday.
"The partnership between our two nations and our two people is deep and enduring," Trump added at the dinner. And Moon - whose parents were evacuated from the North on a US ship during the Korean War - was full of praise for the United States at Camp Humphreys, where US forces stationed in the country - 28,500 in total - have moved their headquarters from downtown Seoul.
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