President Trump and first lady Melania Trump wear leis as they arrive at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Hawaii on Nov. 3. Trump begins a five-country trip through Asia, including Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)
TOKYO — President Trump offered a brief overview of his five-country, 12-day trip to Asia as he flew from Honolulu to Tokyo on Saturday, telling reporters that he expects to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin while abroad, plans to pressure other leaders to take a tougher stance on North Korea, and thinks he is embarking on his visit to China from a position of strength.
Trump was in buoyant spirits Saturday, wearing an unbuttoned, open-collared white shirt with no tie, and appearing in the press cabin unexpectedly to “say hello” near the end of a roughly eight-hour flight to Japan, before he touches down for a full day of meetings Sunday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The president confirmed speculation that he might meet with Putin while in Asia, saying: “I think it’s expected we’ll meet with Putin, yeah. We want Putin’s help on North Korea, and we’ll be meeting with a lot of different leaders.”
Trump’s relationship with Putin, as well as special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, has dogged Trump since the day he took office. Last week, Mueller indicted three people in Trump’s orbit — two senior campaign aides and one lower-level, unpaid volunteer — as part of his ongoing investigation.
But the president, who has often expressed admiration for authoritarian leaders, has remained reluctant to criticize Putin, and the two men have two potential opportunities to cross paths near the end of Trump’s trip — at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam, or at the East Asia Summit in the Philippines.
Trump has also taken a tough line on North Korea, a rhetorical stance he is expected to maintain while in the region. The president said he plans to decide “very soon” whether to label the country a state sponsor of terror, but asked whether he had a message for the people of North Korea, he offered only encouraging words, calling them “great people.”
“They’re industrious, they’re warm, much warmer than the world really knows and understands,” he said. “They’re great people and I hope it all works out for everybody. And it would be a wonderful thing if it could work for those great people, and for everybody.”
And he seemed unconcerned about the prospect that North Korea might use his trip to the region to demonstrate its military might by firing a missile. “We’ll soon find out,” he said. “Good luck!”
The president promised that trade will also be a key focus of his trip, with China — a frequent target of his trade-related ire — looming largest on the economic front. Chinese President Xi Jinpingrecently consolidated power at his nation’s Party of Congress, and Trump is preparing to face a newly emboldened Xi on his home turf.
Trump, however, argued that as president of the United States, he will enter any negotiations or meetings with Xi on similarly strong footing, saying, “I think we’re going in with tremendous strength.”
When a reporter asked him about Xi’s elevated position, the president cut off the questioner, saying, “Excuse me, so am I.” He then rattled off a laundry list of highlights of U.S. power, including the surging stock market, low unemployment and success in combating the Islamic State in the Middle East.
“I think he’s viewing us as very, very strong, and also very friendly,” Trump said. “But we have to do better with trade with China, because it’s a one-way street right now and it has been for many years. And we will. But the reason our stock market is so successful is because of me. I’ve always been great with money, I’ve always been great with jobs, that’s what I do. And I’ve done it well.”
The president also expressed enthusiasm for his meetings with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been criticized for his record on human rights and the bloody drug war roiling his country, but with whom Trump maintains a warm relationship. “I look forward to seeing him,” he said. “I look very much forward to seeing him.”
Trump’s already long trip — to which he unexpectedly added an extra day Friday when he announced that he would stay in the Philippines a final night to attend the East Asia Summit — is expected to be grueling. George H.W. Bush, the last president to embark on such a lengthy trip to the region, in 1992, came down with the flu, and in something of a minor international incident, collapsed into the lap of Japan’s prime minister.
Asked whether he had any tips for staying fresh, Trump replied: “I don’t know. I’ll let you know if I don’t stay fresh. If I don’t stay fresh, you’ll be the first to tell me. I’ll stay fresh.”
The president, who is known for his reluctance to stray far from home, seemed enthusiastic about the trip. In Hawaii, he played eager tourist, solemnly presiding over a wreath-laying ceremony at Pearl Harbor.
And Saturday on the plane, he joked repeatedly with reporters. He is scheduled to play golf Sunday with Abe and Japanese golf star Hideki Matsuyama, who is also known as a strong long-ball hitter, and Trump teased reporters not to trust him if he returns boasting of his stroke.
“I hit the ball pretty long,” Trump said. “I promise you one thing: I won’t be hitting it there. If I come back and say I was longer than him, don’t believe it.”
He also noted that he will spend the first anniversary of Election Day 2016 in China, and facetiously invited his traveling press corps to join him in the festivities. “Can you believe it is almost exactly one year? We’re going to be in China — together,” he said. “We’ll have to celebrate together, Nov. 8. I hope we’ll all celebrate together. In fact, I was going to have a big celebration party, and then I said, ‘Well.’ But we’ll celebrate together.”
Asked about a new book about former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, in which they sharply criticize Trump, the president showed uncharacteristic restraint.
“The Bushes? I’ll comment after we come back,” he said. “I don’t need headlines. I don’t want to make their book successful.”
Mr. Trump leaves Washington on Friday for a five-nation, 12-day trip across Asia during which he intends to intensify pressure on North Korea while also pushing for better trade deals for the United States. After a stop in Hawaii, he travels to Japan, then South Korea and China before ending the tour with regional summits in Vietnam and the Philippines.
Photo
Mr. Moon met with President Trump at the White House in June. Credit
Pete Marovich for The New York Times
“What South Koreans fear the most is, what if Trump says something provocative, like a military option against North Korea,” said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. “Trump is unpredictable.”
Mira Rapp-Hooper, a scholar of Asian security issues at Yale Law School, said Mr. Moon has struggled to balance his agenda with “a Trump strategy that simultaneously aggravates North Korea and threatens the alliance relationship with South Korea.”
“Usually when you are in a heightened security situation, you would expect to see an alliance pull closer,” she said. “But it is very difficult to do in a world where Trump is threatening South Korea itself.”
There have been some signs of pushback by Mr. Moon. He reached a deal with China on Tuesday to end their dispute over the deployment of an American missile defense system, agreeing not to accept additional launchers from the United States. He later said he wanted to pursue “balanced diplomacy” with Washington and Beijing, which favors talks with North Korea.
And in a speech Wednesday, Mr. Moon repeated his position that military action against the North “shall not be taken” without South Korea’s consent, undermining the credibility of Mr. Trump’s threats.
During a visit by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last week, South Korea also sought to take back operational control of its military forces in the event of a conflict, which would undo an agreement in place since the 1950s that puts its troops under United States command if fighting resumes.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
Still, Mr. Moon appears to have concluded that South Korea has little choice but to stand by Mr. Trump and accept its status as the junior partner in the alliance — even though it would have the most to lose in a war.
Photo
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has not conducted a missile test since Sept. 15. Credit
Korean Central News Agency, via Reuters
“What we must realize, painfully, is that although this is a Korean Peninsula issue of greatest urgency for us, in reality, we have no power to resolve it,” Mr. Moon said on July 11 of the nuclear standoff. “We have no power to elicit an agreement.”
Scott Snyder, director of the program on United States-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that Mr. Moon has proved to be a pragmatist.
“And any South Korean pragmatist is going to look at options for achieving South Korea’s security needs, and immediately recognize that the U.S. security guarantee is central,” he said.
Some of Mr. Moon’s supporters have accused him of betraying his principles by deferring to Mr. Trump and what they consider a reckless approach to the North. The conservative opposition, meanwhile, has seized on any deviation to accuse Mr. Moon of endangering the alliance with the United States.
But Mr. Moon’s approval ratings remain high, with many South Koreans instead faulting Mr. Trump. The administration’s hints of a preventive strike on North Korea have unnerved them as much as, if not more than, the North’s weapons tests.
Many were shocked and furious in August when Senator Lindsey Graham quoted Mr. Trump minimizing the potential for casualties in a war by saying they would occur in South Korea, not the United States.
Small groups of anti-American activists have since taken to the streets in Seoul, shouting “No Trump, No War!” and calling him a “dotard,” a derogatory word for an old person that North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, used to condemn Mr. Trump after he threatened to “totally destroy” the North in September.
Photo
A South Korean soldier participating in a drill near the disputed sea border with North Korea in September. Credit
South Korean Marine Corps/Yonhap, via Reuters
“South Koreans are frustrated that the United States has not allowed their country any wriggling room,” said Cho Han-bum, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification. “Trump is helping spawn anti-American sentiment here.”
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
Mr. Moon is also juggling concerns about the security of the coming Winter Olympics, which South Korea will host three months from now in Pyeongchang, a town about 60 miles from the border with the North.
When the South last hosted the Olympics, in 1988, North Korea attempted to disrupt the event, most notably by detonating a bomb on a Korean Air passenger jet, killing 115 people, less than a year earlier. And in 2002, as South Korea hosted the World Cup soccer tournament, the North provoked a naval skirmish that left six South Korean sailors dead and an unknown number of North Korean casualties.
Newsletter Sign Up
Continue reading the main story
Thank you for subscribing.
An error has occurred. Please try again later.
You are already subscribed to this email.
View all New York Times newsletters.
See Sample
Manage Email Preferences
Not you?
Privacy Policy
Opt out or contact us anytime
There is additional anxiety because joint military exercises conducted by South Korea and the United States are scheduled to begin during the Olympics. The North has condemned the annual drills as rehearsals for invasion, and often makes a point of responding with missile tests.
China has proposed suspending the exercises in exchange for a freeze in testing by North Korea, a proposal that both Mr. Moon’s government and the Trump administration have rejected.
When he meets with Mr. Trump, Mr. Moon is expected to discuss ways to ease tensions ahead of the Olympics. But South Korean officials said the exercises were unlikely to be scaled back or delayed, especially if North Korea continued its weapons tests.
Mr. Moon continues to argue that pressure alone will not persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear arms, and that the world must offer it carrots, including negotiations and, eventually, economic exchanges.
Photo
Ribbons on a wire fence near the border with North Korea symbolizing people’s wishes for reunification of the two Koreas. Credit
Ahn Young-Joon/Associated Press
“There is so much weighing on him that I don’t think he has the political capital or ability to muster a strong coalition for sustained engagement” with North Korea, said Celeste Arrington, professor of international affairs at George Washington University. “That is currently kind of a pipe dream because the constraints are so great.”
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
By contrast, China’s president, Xi Jinping, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan will host Mr. Trump next week after political victories at home. Mr. Abe recently won a commanding majority in parliamentary elections, while a Communist Party congress in Beijing elevated Mr. Xi to the same exalted status as Mao Zedong.
Mr. Abe has unequivocally supported Mr. Trump’s approach toward North Korea and argued that “dialogue will not work.”
North Korea has not conducted a missile test since Sept. 15, when it sailed an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan. It is unclear what is behind the lull, but South Korean officials hope to use it to reduce tensions — and build momentum for diplomacy during Mr. Trump’s marathon tour across Asia.
Mr. Trump plans to address South Korea’s legislature, the National Assembly — he would be the first American president to do so in nearly a quartercentury — and visit Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul and the host of Camp Humphreys, one of the largest American military bases.
The visit is intended in part to address Mr. Trump’s complaint that South Korea is not paying enough to support the American military presence.
“South Koreans hope that Mr. Trump’s visit will be an occasion to reconfirm the alliance and agree to a peaceful solution to the North Korean crisis,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. “The last thing they want is for him to come here and add instability.”
