Harris, in Demarche in South Korean Press, Aims To Put Trump on the Spot Over His ‘Love’ of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un

Vice President Harris, aiming to put President Trump on the spot for his “love” of North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, is carrying her campaign for president to South Korea. She is appealing for the votes of more than 2 million Korean-Americans.Ms. Harris reaffirmed her faith in the American-Korean- alliance without mentioning Trump’s personal fondness for Mr. Kim. That has often been expressed by Trump since the two met at their summit in Singapore in June 2018, again at Hanoi in February 2019, and four months later at the truce village of Panmunjom on the line between the two Koreas.“Our alliance has been a linchpin of security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and around the world,” Ms. Harris wrote in an article for South Korea’s Yonhap newspaper. “Trump, by contrast, is demanding that South Korea pay $10 billion a year to host our troops despite its already sizable contributions — disparaging our alliance and disregarding America’s standing in the Indo-Pacific.”The article, which has been top news in Korea’s national networks and newspapers, was timed to win the votes of Korean-Americans. Yet Ms. Harris also directed her appeal to South Korean leaders and officials wary of Mr. Trump’s demands for Seoul to pay more for the 28,500 American troops on bases in South Korea. Korean officials fear Mr. Trump would weaken the alliance by rekindling his relationship with Mr. Kim, with whom Mr. Trump has exchanged a number of letters while saying they “fell in love” at the Singapore summit. Relations between Seoul and Washington deteriorated, however, during the presidency of the leftist Moon Jae-in.Korean-American relations have much improved during Mr. Biden’s presidency and that of Mr. Moon’s successor, the conservative Yoon Seuk-yul, elected in March 2022. Ms. Harris, the daughter of a mother from India who she said “sacrificed to give our family the best life possible” as a cancer researcher at UC Berkeley, likened that record with that of “Korean-American immigrants working in family-owned grocery stores, dry cleaners and restaurants to build a brighter future for their children.”In an analysis accompanying Ms. Harris’ article, Yonhap offered a comparison that reflected the outlook of the Yoon administration. “The Democratic flag-bearer is expected to pursue sturdier multilateral security cooperation through trilateral or other fit-for-purpose platforms,” said the Yonhap commentary, citing “tripartite cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo, and the Quad grouping involving the U.S., India, Japan and Australia.”In contrast, said the commentary, “Trump has been hammering away at his ‘America first’ policy vision, which critics have warned would heap pressure on U.S. allies and partners to do more to address shared challenges while limiting America’s costly, burdensome involvement overseas.”Without mentioning Mr. Trump’s visits to South Korea or his quest for a lasting deal with North Korea, Ms. Harris recalled her single sortie to the country in September 2022 when, while at the demilitarized zone, she “reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of South Korea.” Ms. Harris’ commentary, timed as it was for Tuesday’s election, also appeared as a riposte to a visit to Moscow by North Korea’s highest-ranking woman, Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui. Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency said Ms. Choe and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had agreed that “the root cause of ever-escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula, Northeast Asia and other parts of the world lies in the provocations of the U.S. and its vassal countries.”In keeping with the treaty signed by North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, Ms. Choe and Mr. Lavrov presumably got down to details on burgeoning North Korean-Russian relations. There was no mention, however, of the 10,000 North Korean troops now either with the Russians in Ukraine or on the way. Rather, said KCNA., the Russians supported all North Korea was doing “to deter the aggressive policy of the U.S. and its allies and ensure regional peace and stability.”

Harris, in Demarche in South Korean Press, Aims To Put Trump on the Spot Over His ‘Love’ of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un

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