Us asia relations

WASHINGTON — A White House official said on
Thursday that it would be “catastrophic” to
adopt a proposal by Donald J. Trump, the
Republican front-runner, that Japan and South
Korea manufacture their own nuclear bombs to
deter North Korea.
Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security
adviser and one of President Obama’s closest
aides, said, “Frankly, it would be catastrophic
were the United States to shift its position and
indicate that we somehow support the
proliferation of nuclear weapon to additional
countries.”
Mr. Rhodes, speaking at the Nuclear Security
Summit here convened by Mr. Obama, said Mr.
Trump’s proposal was “not particularly
relevant to the very serious discussions we’re
having here.” But he was withering in his
response to the idea, which he said would
undercut decades of nonproliferation policy.
“The entire premise of American foreign policy
as it relates to nuclear weapons for the last 70
years has been focused on preventing the
proliferation of nuclear weapons,” Mr. Rhodes
said. “That has been the position of bipartisan
administrations, of everybody who has
occupied the Oval Office.”
Mr. Trump first broached the issue of a nuclear-
armed Japan and South Korea in an interview
with The New York Times last week, putting it
in the context of his argument that the United
States should no longer bear the full burden of
defending its East Asian allies. He defended his
comments in a town-hall-style meeting in
Milwaukee on Tuesday that was televised by
CNN.
“You have so many countries already — China,
Pakistan, you have so many countries, Russia —
you have so many countries right now that
have them,” Mr. Trump told the host, Anderson
Cooper. “Now, wouldn’t you rather, in a certain
sense, have Japan have nuclear weapons when
North Korea has nuclear weapons?”
Earlier this week, a top Japanese government
official reiterated Japan’s policy that it would
not possess nuclear weapons.