Across Asia, Kim and Trump give rise to wariness, uncertainty
Watchful citizens divided on the effect of two volatile leaders
As President Trump ramps up his bellicose rhetoric toward North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, leaders and ordinary citizens across Asia are watching with various states of alarm, unsure which man poses a greater danger to their safety.
In Seoul, the capital of South Korea, where the specter of a North Korean attack has hung over the population for decades, many say they aren’t particularly concerned about the escalating threats coming from the North Korean government, which has long menaced its neighbor.
The metropolitan area of Seoul is home to 25 million people and remains vulnerable not just to a nuclear attack from North Korea but to a strike from the massive buildup of conventional artillery at the border just 35 miles away.
Hong Ji-eun, 28, an assistant marketing manager, said the latest provocations don’t worry her. “North Korea has been threatening us every day, but we know from experience that the socalled potential threats didn’t really cause anything,” she said. “I believe it’s really similar to asking a Japanese person, ‘ How could you live with all the potential earthquakes?’ ”
She said that Kim poses the greater risk to their safety than Trump because she believes the U.S. ultimately will act rationally. “North Korea is a somewhat isolated country, capable of making decisions that would seem irrational in our sense, which can bring devastating consequences.”
Bae Sung-huyn, 28, a Ph.D. candidate at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, agreed that North Korea’s chronic provocations have made him insensitive to rising tensions. But he added that Kim as a dictator has the capacity to act with more autonomy than Trump.
“Kim Jong Un worries me a lot more,” he said. “Trump is warning North Korea of possible retaliatory actions for North Korea’s threats and attacks. The president does have a lot of authority; however, he cannot perform such a big issue on his own. It worries me that Kim Jong Un’s actions have been somehow much more impulsive than his father, Kim Jong Il.”
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who was elected this spring on a promise to improve ties with the North, called on Kim to stop making threats. But he also offered to open a dialogue to help defuse tensions.
After a meeting of South Korea’s National Security Council on Thursday, the government said diplomacy was still on the table. The council “decided to take active diplomatic measures to help ease tension while keeping the country’s door for dialogue with
North Korea,” said Park Soo-hyun, a presidential spokesman.
North Korea’s threat to develop a plan by mid-August to launch four ballistic missiles in waters near Guam, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific that hosts 7,000 U.S. troops, has alarmed not only the island’s 160,000 residents but also others in the region.
In the Philippines, many resi- dents are watching the standoff with concern.
Rosanna Misa, 47, a homemaker in Manila, said she is worried about the possibility of missiles falling into the Philippines, and she accused Trump and Kim of escalating the danger.
“Kim scares me more,” she said. “I don’t think he understands the repercussions of all that posturing and the threats he’s made all this time. He cannot take criticism, and he seems to be confined to his own little bubble. Mr. Trump’s lack of diplomacy makes it worse. Loose cannon and loose mouth — nobody wins.”
Alvin Yana, a consultant for an international development aid group in Davao, a city on the southern island of Mindanao, places the blame squarely on Trump for raising the temperature level.
“Trump’s immature bullying against North Korea, triggered by such a sick mind, could kill millions in so many innocent countries including the Philippines,” he said. “I hope the U.S. Congress removes him from office.”
Dina Libunao, 48, who works for a Filipino airline, also said she is more worried about Trump: “I’m not scared of (Kim), the one who is all talk yet we know has no real capability of war of more than few days. Be more scared of the U.S. when it takes action. It walks the talk.”
Japan deployed its Patriot missile defense system at various points around the country on Saturday just days after warning that its military could shoot down missiles fired from North Korea toward Guam.
During a session of Japan’s parliament Thursday, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said an attack against Guam would be considered an existential threat to Japan, which has a mutual defense agreement with the United States.
China has found itself the target of jabs by Trump for failing to do more to contain the North Korean threat, but the Beijing government, Kim’s chief political ally, is urging the U.S. president to tone down his rhetoric.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged Trump in a phone call Saturday to avoid “words and deeds” that would “exacerbate” the already tense situation on the Korean Peninsula, Chinese state television CCTV reported.
China’s Global Times, a staterun newspaper, said in an editorial that China would remain neutral if North Korea attacked first, but not if the U.S. started a conflict.
“If the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so,” the editorial said.
Other reaction around the Asian region was a mixture of wariness and confusion.
In Ho Chi Minh City, Dang Nguyen, 26, an associate professor, said most people aren’t discussing the threat of war too seriously, but many are confounded by the impulsiveness of both leaders.
“Who’s the bad guy?” she said. “It’s interesting. The president of the United States and Kim Jong Un, and you’re not sure who the bad guy is. It shouldn’t be tough to figure out, but I can’t tell.”
“I don’t think (Kim) understands the repercussions of all that posturing and the threats he’s made all this time.” Rosanna Misa