Trump: Era of 'strategic patience' with North Korea 'is over'
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FOX NEWS - President Trump said Friday that the “era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed,” as he met with South Korea’s president in Washington to discuss the nuclear weapons threat from Pyongyang and other top issues.
“Frankly, that patience is over,” he said, citing the death of American student Otto Warmbier as an example of the brutality of the North Korean regime.
“The United States will defend itself, always will defend itself” and its allies, Trump said.
Trump welcomed South Korean President Moon Jae-in for formal talks at the White House a day after they met over dinner. As well as concerns over North Korea's technological progress toward a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the continental U.S., Trump is pushing for a narrowing of the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea.
Since his 2016 election campaign, Trump has been critical of a 2012 bilateral free trade agreement and barriers to U.S. auto exports. South Korea had trade surplus of $17 billion with the U.S. last year when including both goods and services.
"We are renegotiating a trade deal right now as we speak with South Korea and hopefully it will be an equitable deal, it will be a fair deal for both parties," Trump said alongside Moon in the Oval Office. ""We want something that will be very good for the American worker."