This was also irritating because on Sunday Trump had sharply criticized the military maneuver that his own army is currently carrying out together with the South Korean military. The reason for his criticism was his “good relationship” with Kim Jong-un. The exercises would send “a completely inappropriate and hostile signal to a country” that had behaved “not threateningly but respectfully” toward him, Trump said.
North Korea treats its direct neighbors less respectfully. On Thursday, Pyongyang sent a salvo of short-range missiles across the Sea of Japan, according to the official Yonhap news agency. Kim is thus threatening South Korea and Japan and is also a close ally of Russia, which is now also waging its war against Ukraine with the help of North Korean soldiers. The only sensible reason why Trump would alienate long-time allies South Korea and Japan and instead seek proximity to North Korea would be that he is seeking foreign policy success. Almost all of his previous initiatives have failed. The US war against Iran has even given the regime in Tehran a means of exerting pressure by blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
Later in the week, Trump claimed that he was conducting secret negotiations with Kim. Maybe he just didn't inform his sister about it? “This is perhaps the only point I don’t know about our top leadership’s foreign policy,” Kim Yo-jong said. In a statement, she paid tribute to the relationship between Kim and Trump and said her brother had "personally good memories and feelings" towards the US president. She also immediately rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's claims that North Korea was planning to send tens of thousands of soldiers to fight alongside Russia.
Trump, in turn, declared on Wednesday that North Korea possessed “57 very powerful nuclear weapons,” revealing information that normally should not be made public. The US secret services are also not to be envied at the moment. After the number was out, the South Korean Defense Ministry corrected on Thursday: North Korea has 80 to 120 nuclear warheads, "but it is very difficult to give an exact number," Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back told MPs in Seoul. In the subsequent questioning, Ahn declined to comment on whether Trump's reference to the 57 warheads amounted to US recognition of North Korea's nuclear status.
Actually, Trump's intention in his first term in office was to prevent North Korea's nuclear weapons program. A series of summit meetings that were described as historic ultimately only led to declarations of intent – and to at least “57 very powerful nuclear weapons,” as we now know. Despite this failure, Trump is sticking to his plan. On Wednesday, before boarding the Marine One helicopter, the US President was asked whether he planned to meet Kim Jong-un this year: “Yes, I will.”
