U.S. leader Donald Trump warned China on Thursday, a day before departing on his first Asia tour as president, that it must do more to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions or face “a big problem” with “warrior nation” Japan.
“Japan is a warrior nation, and I tell China and I tell everyone else that listens, I mean, you’re gonna have yourself a big problem with Japan pretty soon if you allow this to continue with North Korea,” Trump said in an interview on the Fox News program “The Ingraham Angle.”
It was unclear what the U.S. leader was referring to, in terms of a “big problem,” but Trump had suggested during his successful campaign for president that he would be open to Japan acquiring its own nuclear weapons.
China has looked warily at recent moves to loosen postwar constraints imposed on Japan’s military and has long been suspicious of Tokyo’s large plutonium stockpile.
Trump is scheduled to visit Japan from Sunday, when he will meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has joined the U.S. president in his “maximum pressure” approach to nuclear-armed North Korea.
He will also visit China from Wednesday to Thursday and meet President Xi Jinping.
Trump said in Thursday’s interview that Xi had been “pretty terrific” on North Korea and that “China is helping us,” but is widely expected to urge Beijing to do more on the issue.
Regional tensions have soared over Pyongyang’s ballistic missile and atomic programs, which in recent months have seen it test long-range missiles and carry out its sixth nuclear blast. It has also lobbed two intermediate-range missiles designed to carry nuclear payloads over Hokkaido, stoking concern in Tokyo.
Still, experts say that any push by Japan to build nuclear weapons currently remains unlikely given the low levels of public support and because of the ensuing arms race in Asia it would almost assuredly unleash.
More immediately, Japan under Abe has moved to slowly unshackle itself from constraints imposed after its loss in World War II, including by passing security legislation that has set the stage for U.S. and Japanese troops to work more closely together than ever.
And with tensions on the Korean Peninsula hitting recent highs, Abe has overseen a more muscular response out of Tokyo to that crisis, often dispatching the Self-Defense Forces for joint exercises with the U.S. as part of his push to make them a better and more capable military.