South Korean leaders are confused and lack confidence in President Trump’s handling of the looming problem of the North’s nuclear weapons program, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Monday.
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island has just returned from a trip to South Korea and the Demilitarized Zone to meet with officials there and said Seoul was confused by the Trump administration’s public statements regarding whether it is seeking dialogue with the North as tensions escalate.
“On one hand they hear Secretary [of State Rex] Tillerson being reprimanded for suggesting that he is trying to set up lines of communication. On the other hand, Trump casually says that he might talk to [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un,” Reed said.
Trump had said in August that “talking is not the answer” to stopping North Korea from acquiring nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the U.S. even as Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis insisted diplomacy remained the best hope.
Last week, the president, who nicknamed Kim “Little Rocket Man,” said he would consider negotiating with the North Korea leader in what appeared to be a change of position.
Reed said the shifts in rhetoric has rattled the South Koreans.
“I think they are confused and I think they are a little bit shaken because they understand that they would be in the line of fire if there’s any contact between the United States and North Korea in terms of a kinetic military operation,” he said.
During his press conference, Reed pressed for a more unified rhetoric from the administration, increased cooperation with allies as well as China and Russia, and filling empty State Department positions including an ambassador to South Korea.
