Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s suggestion that Japan and South Korea should be allowed to become nuclear states “is not particularly relevant to the very serious discussions we’re having here” at the nuclear summit in Washington, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said Thursday.
U.S. foreign policy for decades has been all about preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, so it would be “catastrophic were the United States to shift position” and in any way suggest it supports more states becoming nuclear, Rhodes said.
President Obama met with South Korean President Park Geun-Hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Thursday morning to discuss North Korean aggression. At no time did the conversation veer into domestic politics or Trump’s radically different position, a White House official said.
As to Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. stop providing South Korea and Japan defense unless they pay for it, Rhodes said those defense alliances are “rock solid” and that the U.S. will always come to the aid of those close allies.
