Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program, proposing a major shift in
U.S. policy toward the isolated nation.
In a wide-ranging interview with
Reuters, Trump also called for a renegotiation of the Paris climate accord,
said he disapproved of Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in eastern
Ukraine, and said he would seek to dismantle most of the U.S. Dodd-Frank
financial regulations if he is elected president.
The presumptive Republican nominee
declined to share details of his plans to deal with North Korea, but said he
was open to talking to its leader.
"I would speak to him, I
would have no problem speaking to him," he said.
Asked whether he would try to talk
some sense into the North Korean leader, Trump replied, "Absolutely."
North Korea's mission to the
United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's
remarks.
Trump, 69, also said he would
press China, Pyongyang's only major diplomatic and economic supporter, to help
find a solution.
"I would put a lot of
pressure on China because economically we have tremendous power over
China," he said in the interview in his office on the 26th floor of Trump
Tower in Manhattan. "China can solve that problem with one meeting or one phone
call."
Trump's preparedness to talk
directly with Kim contrasts with President Barack Obama's policy of relying on
senior U.S. officials to talk to senior North Korean officials.
A South Korean foreign ministry
official declined to respond directly to Trump's comments but said South Korea
and the United States were committed to denuclearization as the top priority of
any dialogue with North Korea.
"North Korea must cease
threats and provocations and show with action its sincere commitment to
denuclearization," the official said by telephone.
Obama has not engaged personally
with Kim, but he has pushed for new diplomatic overtures to Iran and Cuba that
produced a nuclear deal with Tehran and improved ties with Havana.
Sitting at his desk with an
expansive view of Central Park, Trump spoke at length about his economic and
foreign policy ideas in the half-hour interview. Facing him on his desk is a
framed photograph of his father, the late Fred Trump. A wall displays framed
photos of Trump with various celebrities, as well as numerous magazine covers
on which he has appeared.
On Russia, Trump tempered past
praise of Putin, saying the nice comments the Russian leader has made about him
in the past would only go so far.
"The fact that he said good
things about me doesn't mean that it's going to help him in a negotiation. It
won't help him at all," he said.
An adviser to Hillary Clinton, the
leading Democratic presidential candidate, criticized Trump's foreign policy
comments, noting they came soon after Trump said he was unlikely to have a good
relationship with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"Let me get this straight:
Donald Trump insults the leader of our closest ally, then turns around and says
he'd love to talk to Kim Jong Un?" Clinton's senior foreign policy adviser,
Jake Sullivan, said in a statement.
Trump "seems to have a
bizarre fascination with foreign strongmen like Putin and Kim. But his approach
to foreign policy makes no sense for the rest of us," he said.
In the Reuters interview, Trump
said he thought Cameron's criticism of him was inappropriate but "I'm sure
I'll have a good relationship with him."
CLIMATE ACCORD
Trump said he is "not a big
fan" of the Paris climate accord, which prescribes reductions in carbon
emissions by more than 170 countries. He said he would want to renegotiate the
deal because it treats the United States unfairly and gives favorable treatment
to countries like China.
"I will be looking at that
very, very seriously, and at a minimum I will be renegotiating those
agreements, at a minimum. And at a maximum I may do something else," he
said.
A renegotiation of the pact would
be a major setback for what was hailed as the first truly global climate
accord, committing both rich and poor nations to reining in the rise in
greenhouse gas emissions blamed for warming the planet.
Trump has been criticized for
offering far fewer specific policy proposals than Clinton, his likely rival for
the Nov. 8 presidential election.
The New York billionaire said he
planned to release a detailed policy platform in two weeks that would propose
dismantling nearly all of Dodd-Frank, a package of financial reforms put in
place after the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
"Dodd-Frank is a very
negative force, which has developed a very bad name," he said.
Trump took a dim view of Clinton's
stated desire to put her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in charge of
building up the U.S. economy.
"The wife wants to make him
in charge of the economy," he said.
Clinton described Trump's idea of
dismantling Dodd-Frank as reckless. "Latest reckless idea from Trump: gut
rules on Wall Street, and leave middle-class families out to dry," she
said on Twitter.
FINANCIAL BUBBLE?
Trump said he perceived a
dangerous financial bubble in the tech start-up industry, with some companies
selling shares at high valuations without ever turning a profit.
"I'm talking about companies
that have never made any money, that have a bad concept and that are valued at
billions of dollars," he said.
Silicon Valley investors responded
on Twitter by poking fun at Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great
Again!" by repeating the phrase, "Make Bubbles Great Again."
On the U.S. Federal Reserve, Trump
said that while he eventually wants a Republican to head it, he is "not an
enemy" of current chair Janet Yellen, who was appointed by Obama.
"I'm not a person that thinks
Janet Yellen is doing a bad job. I happen to be a low-interest rate person
unless inflation rears its ugly head, which can happen at some point," he
said, adding that inflation "doesn't seem like it's happening any time
soon."
The real estate mogul said he
would maintain the current level of benefits for Social Security recipients, a
position championed by former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
Trump said he would not raise the retirement age or impose a sliding scale of
benefits depending on income levels.
Some Republican lawmakers have
pushed for structural reforms to Social Security to extend its solvency.
The depleted Social Security Trust
Fund, Trump said, would be replenished by the increased tax revenue that would
flow into the government from the higher job growth spurred by his economic
policies.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and
Emily Flitter; Additional reporting by Alana Wise, Emily Stephenson, Ginger
Gibson, David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Ross
Colvin, Tiffany Wu and Lincoln Feast)
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