President Obama Answers Donald Trump With Scathing Critique

WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Obama has taken off the gloves.

After hosting more than 50 world leaders in Washington for the Nuclear Security Summit, Obama gave a blunt assessment of Donald Trump's comments that Japan and South Korea should consider arming themselves with nuclear weapons.

"The person who made the statements doesn't know much about foreign policy or nuclear policy or the Korean Peninsula or the world generally," Obama told a news conference Friday.

Trump said last week at a CNN town hall that because of Japan and South Korea were not paying enough for U.S. troops stationed in those countries, that "it may be time for Japan and South Korea to develop their own nuclear arsenals so the U.S. can pull back from Asia."

The United States currently has 54,000 troops stationed in Japan and 28,500 in South Korea.

Every president since World War II has maintained a nuclear non-proliferation policy, which seeks to eliminate, or at least reduce, the stockpile of nuclear weapons around the world and the materials needed to make them. Trump's proposal would basically undo the Non-Proliferation Treaty — initiated by President Kennedy and signed by President Nixon in 1970 — which is credited with dramatically reducing the stockpile of weapons around the world and the number of countries who have or are pursuing them.

"Frankly, it would be catastrophic were the United States to shift its position and indicate that we somehow support proliferation of nuclear weapons to additional countries," Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said in response to Trump's comments.

Obama described the United State's partnership with Japan and South Korea as, “one of the cornerstones of our presence in the Asia-Pacific region,” adding that the arrangement has provided peace in the area and economic benefits to the United States from the uninterrupted flow of commerce.

"It has prevented the possibilities of a nuclear escalation and conflict," Obama said. "You don't mess with that. It's an investment that rests on the sacrifices that our men and women made" in World War II.

"We don't want someone in the Oval Office who doesn't recognize how important that is."

The only nuclear bombs ever used in warfare were dropped by the United States on Japan during World War II, first on Hiroshima and three days later on Nagasaki. The bombs killed at least 129,000 people, mostly civilians. Japan announced its surrender six days later and included a pacifist and non-nuclear policy in its post-war constitution.

"It is impossible that Japan will arm itself with nuclear weapons," Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said.

The nuclear summit was the fourth and final during Obama's presidency. At its conclusion, he talked about the steps taken to prevent nuclear terrorism at the and the progress made toward freeing the world of nuclear materials.

"The single most effective defense against nuclear terrorism is fully securing this material so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands in the first place," he said.

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