Trump meets with defectors from N. Korea

WASHINGTON • U.S. President Donald Trump met with North Korean defectors in the Oval Office on Friday, a provocative action meant to highlight human rights violations and one that could raise alarms in Pyongyang.

Trump welcomed eight defectors — six who live in South Korea and two who live in the United States — two days after he punctuated his State of the Union address by praising Ji Seong-ho, a defector from North Korea who had been invited to watch the address from the first lady’s box. He was among the group at the White House on Friday.

During brief remarks to reporters, Trump, seated next to Ji, said some of the defectors had remained in another room out of sight of the television cameras because they remain fearful of their safety. “They are petrified to be here,” Trump said. “It’s tough stuff.”

As he has before, Trump criticized past administrations for not acting more forcefully on North Korea, though he did not specify whether he meant shutting down the nation’s nuclear weapons program or dealing with human rights violations, orboth.

“Many administrations should have acted on this a long time ago when we weren’t in this kind of position,” the president said. “It could have been done 12 years ago, it could have been done 20 years ago ... We have no road left. We’ll see what happens. We’ll get through the Olympics and maybe something good will come out of the Olympics.”

The U.S. and South Korea agreed to suspend joint military exercises on the peninsula until after the two-week Winter Games, which begin Feb. 9 in Pyeongchang. The North has agreed to send a delegation of athletes and officials and they will join the South during the march into the Opening Ceremony. But experts said such displays of harmony are unlikely to last.

The visit of the defectors offered Trump a chance to shine a spotlight on human rights abuses in North Korea, emphasizing the human costs of Kim Jong Un’s authoritarian regime.

The visit was arranged by Greg Scarlatoiu at the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, a person familiar with the meeting said. Foreign policy experts warned that there are risks for Trump to engage so directly with the defectors.

“Meeting them in the Oval raises the question of whether the U.S. strategy is regime change,” said one foreignpolicy expert who specializes in East Asia. “It could reduce the incentive to negotiate and potentially undercut efforts (of co-operation) with China. The real question is: Is North Korea strategy changing?”

Aides to ex-president Barack Obama said they do not recall him meeting with defectors. Ex-president George W. Bush met with defectors in the Oval Office in 2006.