DONALD Trump’s latest tweets on North Korea received a muted response in South Korea, where media focused more on US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s acknowledgement that the US is keeping communication channels open with the Pyongyang.
South Korea’s largest daily newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, warned in an editorial that any US-North Korea talks should not recognise the North as a nuclear state, or the South would be also be forced to seek nuclear arms.
Tillerson made headlines on Saturday when he said in Beijing that the Trump administration is probing North Korea’s willingness to talk, though his spokeswoman later said that the North has shown no interest in talks on denuclearisation.
On Sunday, the US President tweeted that he had told Tillerson “he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man”, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The South Korean president’s office declined to comment.
A small progressive online newspaper, Voice of People, said in an editorial that Trump’s comments are signs of confusion in US policy toward North Korea, though it said the tweet was unlikely to cause a major change in Tillerson’s position.
“Such unstable US policy toward North Korea is entirely a burden on us,” the editorial read.
Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor at the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing said it has been previously established that Trump and Tillerson have differing opinions on foreign policy, said
He said: “In my view, Trump hopes both North Korea and China hear what he said on Twitter. His Twitter comments put greater pressure on North Korea, which is at a critical road crossing now, so it must make a choice.”
Zhang Lifan, an independent commentator in China, said he believes Trump’s latest tweets show Trump is losing patience with North Korea. He said China and the US need to find a way to resolve the nuclear issue, because past experience shows that negotiations with the North are useless.
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