No response to Trump slamming Moon: Cheong Wa Dae

President Moon Jae-in and former U.S. President Donald Trump / Korea Times file

By Kang Seung-woo

Cheong Wa Dae has refrained from responding to former U.S. President Donald Trump's denunciation of President Moon Jae-in as a weak leader and negotiator, in response to the South Korean president saying the ex-American leader “beat around the bush” in his nuclear talks with North Korea.

“It is not appropriate to comment on former foreign leader's statements,” said an official at the presidential office.

Trump's scathing criticism of Moon came in a statement Friday (local time). The former U.S. president said, “Kim Jong-un of North Korea, whom I have gotten to know (and like) under the most trying of circumstances, never respected the current president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in.”

He said, “President Moon was weak as a leader and as a negotiator, except when it came to the continued, long-term military rip-off of the USA (as is the case with many other countries we protect!). We were treated like fools for decades, however, I got them to pay billions of dollars more for the military protection and services we render.”

During Trump's term from 2017 to 2021, Washington pressured Seoul to increase its contribution hugely to $5 billion a year in costs to keep 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, and consequently, cost-sharing negotiations were deadlocked for over a year.

“We had negotiations, abiding by principles,” the Cheong Wa Dae official said.

In March, two months after Trump left office, South Korea agreed to pay 1.18 trillion won ($1.05 billion) for the U.S. military presence this year, a 13.9 percent increase from 2019, with annual increases thereafter linked to its defense budget.

The Trump statement is regarded as his response to Moon's recent interview with The New York Times, in which the South Korean leader said Trump “beat around the bush and failed to pull it through” when it comes to efforts on North Korea.