Trump Reassures South Koreans ‘It Will All Work Out’ With North Korea

President Trump with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea during their meeting at the Blue House in Seoul on Tuesday.
Doug Mills/The New York Times

President Trump, whose long-distance threats and insults toward North Korea have stoked fears of a nuclear confrontation, brought a message of reassurance to South Korea on Tuesday, moving to bolster an anxious ally as he came within 35 miles of one of the world’s most dangerous borders.

Gone were the threats to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea and the derisive references to its leader, Kim Jong-un, as “Little Rocket Man” as Mr. Trump said he saw progress in diplomatic efforts to counter the threat from Pyongyang, adding, “Ultimately, it will all work out.”

After a day of private meetings and public bonding with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, who was elected promising a shift toward dialogue with the North, Mr. Trump — who as recently as last month tweeted that direct talks were a “waste of time” — said on Tuesday that it would be in Pyongyang’s interest to “come to the table and to make a deal.”

And instead of threatening muscular pre-emptive action against the North, Mr. Trump said he prayed that using military force would not be necessary.

“I think we’re making a lot of progress, I think we’re showing great strength, I think they understand we have unparalleled strength,” Mr. Trump said of North Korea during a news conference at the presidential Blue House with Mr. Moon.

Mr. Trump, who visited with American and South Korean troops at Camp Humphreys south of Seoul, noted that the United States military had positioned three aircraft carriers and a nuclear submarine in the Pacific.

“We have many things happening that we hope, we hope — in fact, I’ll go a step further — we hope to God we never have to use,” Mr. Trump said.

When pressed by a reporter, Mr. Trump declined to say whether he still thought negotiations with North Korea would be a waste of time, making an uncharacteristic effort to avoid a remark that might have inflamed tensions.

“I don’t want to say that — I just don’t want to say that,” Mr. Trump said. “You can understand.”

His visit to Seoul was the most diplomatically challenging leg of Mr. Trump’s 12-day, five-country trip through Asia, bringing him face to face with a public and a president wary of his combative approach on North Korea. To many of Mr. Moon’s progressive supporters, Mr. Trump poses as much of a threat to peace as Mr. Kim, if not more so.

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SOURCE: New York Times, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Mark Landler and Choe Sang-Hun