Trump to meet Duterte, skip DMZ during Asia trip

President Donald J. Trump will meet with Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte and may meet Russian President Vladimir Putin during a 12-day trip to Asia and Hawaii in November, a White House official said. Mr. Trump also is likely to visit a US Army base in South Korea, Camp Humphreys.

WASHINGTON DC — President Donald J. Trump will meet with Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte and may meet Russian President Vladimir Putin during a 12-day trip to Asia and Hawaii in November, a White House official said.

Mr. Trump also is likely to visit a US Army base in South Korea, Camp Humphreys, instead of the Demilitarized Zone ( DMZ) between North and South Korea in a trip that will focus on maximizing pressure on Pyongyang to abandon its missile and nuclear programs, said the official. A visit to the DMZ hasn’t been ruled out, said the off icial, who briefed reporters at the White House on the Nov. 3-14 trip on condition of anonymity.

Many of Mr. Trump’s predecessors have taken the opportunity to visit one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders during their trips to South Korea.

President Bill Clinton memorably walked partially down the Bridge of No Return crossing the military demarcation line between North and South Korea.

Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Barack Obama peered into North Korea with the aid of binoculars. President George H.W. Bush is the only US leader since Mr. Reagan’s visit in 1983 not to have stopped at the DMZ as president, though Mr. Bush did visit while serving as Mr. Reagan’s vice-president.

Mr. Trump’s vice- president, Mike Pence, and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson went to the border during their visits to South Korea earlier this year. The official said Mr. Trump was unlikely to have time to visit both the DMZ and Camp Humphreys.

Humphreys, a facility largely paid for by the South Koreans, was a good example of cost-sharing, a principle the president has stressed with US allies, the official said.

Trade and economic relations will be the other key priority for the trip, which will be Mr. Trump’s longest foreign journey to date as president and take him to five countries and two regional summits, the official said. Mr. Trump plans to visit South Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam and the Philippines after first stopping in Hawaii for a briefing from the US military’s Pacific Command.

In China, the official said, the president plans to stress fair and reciprocal trade and economic relations. Among the issues the president plans to raise are forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and reciprocal treatment for US services companies seeking to invest in China, the White House said.

The trip will be Mr. Trump’s first foray to Asia as president, and it takes place amid escalating tension in the region over North Korea’s weapons programs. It will come just after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition was returned to power in parliamentary elections and Chinese President Xi Jinping further consolidated his power in his country’s party congress, which occurs once every five years.

Mr. Trump would send a clear message on human rights principles in his meeting with Mr. Duterte, the off icial said. Mr. Duterte has been criticized over extrajudicial killings in the Philippines as part of his crackdown on the drug trade. Mr. Trump has previously offered praise for Mr. Duterte, telling the leader on a private phone call that he had done “an unbelievable job on the drug problem,” according to a transcript of the conversation obtained by the Washington Post.

Mr. Obama canceled a scheduled visit with Mr. Duterte during his final visit to Asia after the Filipino leader said it would be “rude” to raise human rights issues in their conversations and referred to the former president by a vulgar epithet. — Bloomberg