미국 공화당의 선두 대선주자인 도널드 트럼프는 10일(현지시간) 4차 핵실험을 강행한 북한을 “망신거리”(a disgrace)라고 지칭하면서 미국의 경제력을 이용해 중국이 북핵 문제 해결에 나서도록 압력을 가해야 한다고 주문했다.
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(Yonhap) |
트럼프는 이날 미국 폭스뉴스 선데이에 출연해 “이란은 미국이 어리석은 협상을 하는 바람에 이제 곧 한개의 핵무기를 가질 것으로 보이지만, 북한은 이미 모종의 매우 위험스런 핵무기들을 갖고 있다”면서 이같이 말했다.
트럼프는 이어 “대통령이 될 경우 중국에 대해 ‘북핵문제에 개입해 문제를 바로잡아라. 만일 바로잡지 않으면 곤경에 빠질 것’이라고 말할 것”이라며 “우리는 중국을 상대로 쓸 수 있는 무역의 힘이 있다”고 강조했다.
그는 “버락 오바마 미국 대통령은 기업인이 아니어서 이를 이해하지 못한다”고 지적했다.
그는 중국의 환율조작 논란을 거론하며 “중국이 자국의 문제에서 벗어나려고 위안화 평가 절하를 시도하는 것”이라며 “미국 기업들이 중국과 경쟁하지 못하도록 만들고 있다”고 비판했다.
트럼프는 “중국만 그러는 것은 아니지만 중국이 (화폐 평가절하를) 가장 심하게 악용하는 나라”라며 “우리는 중국을 향해 쓸 수 있는 엄청난 경제력을 갖고 있다”고 거듭 대(對) 중국 압박론을 제기했다. (연합)
<관련 영문 기사>
Trump calls N.K. ‘disgrace,’ calls for China to fix problem
Calling North Korea a “disgrace,” Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Sunday that China should solve the problem as Pyongyang’s main benefactor or be forced to see its trade with the United States suffer.
It was the latest in a series of remarks that Trump has been making since the North’s nuclear test last week to underscore his point that China has “total control” over Pyongyang, and the U.S. should force Beijing to fix the problem of the North.
“I think North Korea is a disgrace,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I would get China, and I would say, ‘Get in there and straighten it out. You’d better straighten it out.’ And, if you don’t straighten it out, we’re going to have trouble because we have power over China. We have trade power over China.”
Trump also said that while Iran is expected to have nuclear weapons due to what he calls a “stupid agreement” that the U.S. and other world powers concluded with Tehran last year, North Korea already has “very dangerous weapons of some sort.”
In another FOX TV interview, Trump again said that China is the one that should fix the North Korea problem.
“People ask me a number of questions. They were asking me how do you solve North Korea? Well, China should be solving North Korea; they have total power,” Trump said.
“I say we can beat them so badly; we have such power over China with trade because we have rebuilt China. They have taken so much out of our economy in terms of money that we can -- we have a lot power over China. They should solve the North Korea problem,” he said.
Last week, Trump said that the U.S. should be very tough with China on trade unless it cooperates in reining in the North, even claiming that the U.S. can have China collapse “in about two minutes.”
Trump again repeated his unfounded criticism that South Korea is getting a defense free ride from the U.S. while paying only “peanuts” for the upkeep of the 28,500 American troops stationed in the country to help defend against the North.
“I order thousands, and thousands of televisions a year.
They’re all made in South Korea, whether it’s Samsung, LG; they’re made in South Korea. Every time I order, South Korea gets huge checks, right?” Trump said.
“They’re a monster. They are absolutely a behemoth in terms of economics. An economic behemoth. Now, we’re sitting there with 28,000 soldiers on our line between North Korea and South Korea. We get paid almost nothing. We get paid peanuts. We’re not being paid,” he said.
The presence of U.S. troops in South Korea is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the divided peninsula still technically at war, and Seoul has long shared the cost of stationing U.S. forces.
In 2014, the two countries renewed their cost-sharing agreement, known as the Special Measures Agreement, with Seoul agreeing to pay 920 billion won ($886 million) for the upkeep of the U.S. troops in 2014, a 5.8 percent increase from a year earlier.
Moreover, the American military presence on the peninsula is seen as in line with U.S. national interests in a region marked by a rising China. (Yonhap)
