ASIA/EU/IRAN/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/UN: “When President Trump travels to New York on Sunday [9-23-18] for his second visit to the United Nations, he will face tensions with allies in Europe and Asia — but not necessarily of a predictable sort. Administration officials contend that Mr. Trump’s well-documented rift with the Europeans over his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal has been overblown. But they acknowledge that there is a growing risk of a split with South Korea, an ally with which Mr. Trump has been mostly in sync, over the pace of diplomacy with North Korea. These crosscurrents will be on display during three days of meetings and speeches at the General Assembly — a ritual that some liken to ‘diplomatic speed dating,’ but which Mr. Trump treated last year as just another venue to talk about his ‘America First’ policy. Iran and North Korea will be dominant themes for Mr. Trump, both in his speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday [9-25-18] and the next day at a meeting of the Security Council, where he will be presiding.”
–Mark Landler and Gardiner Harris, “At the U.N., the Rift With Allies Trump Might Have to Mend Is With South Korea,” The New York Times online, September 20, 2018