Deputy Assistant Secretary of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, about the Trump administration's evolving Asia policy. For more on what seems to be the Trump administration's shifting foreign policy focus, I'm joined now by Jung H. She was deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs during the Biden administration.
She's currently a distinguished fellow at the Center for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy at Vrije University in Belgium. Thanks so much for joining us once again. JUNG H PAK: Hi there, Michel.
So as we just heard, President Trump is telling the Pentagon to scale back its participation in joint military drills with South Korea. How would you expect the leaders of South Korea and other Asian nations, for that matter, to view this now? PAK: Michel, I think there's a good part, which is maybe there's movement on the North Korea side, and that President Trump has elicited some sort of response or reaction from Kim Jong Un and Kim might be willing to meet.
Now, recall that there hasn't been very much or any diplomacy since 2019, since the summit failed. So any effort to draw out North Korea is good. The bad is that it's at a great cost.
President Trump and the administration clearly did not talk with the allies, especially South Korea, on this, on the exercises. At the same time, President Trump has derided South Korea for not doing enough for its own defense or on helping on Iran. As you mentioned in the previous segment, North Korea is different now.
It has more capabilities. It has learned so much from sending its men and material into Ukraine to help Russia. So this is a North Korea that doesn't really see that the U.S. has much to offer.
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