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A Tokyo citizen passes in front of a television monitor airing a report on US President Donald Trump’s phone conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sept. 4. (AP/Yonhap News)

US President Donald Trump allegedly disparaged South Korean President Moon Jae-in as acting “like a beggar” with his calls for dialogue with North Korpea. The remarks were supposedly made in a telephone conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Japanese network Fuji TV reported on Sept. 7.

According to the network, Trump made the disparaging remarks about Moon to Abe in a telephone conversation on Aug. 29, after North Korea test-launched a missile that passed through Japanese airspace. Trump was also quoted as asking Abe “not to tell anyone” about the need for military pressure on North Korea.

Abe also reportedly used the remarks from Trump as a basis for a later telephone summit with Moon, and another telephone summit with Trump afterwards. The Fuji TV included an analysis suggesting the situation showed Japan’s internal efforts to mediate between South Korea, which is reluctant to apply military pressure to the North, and an anxious US.

The network also reported remarks alleged made by Trump during another telephone summit on Sept. 3, after North Korea’s sixth nuclear test. During the conversation, Trump described himself as “100% with Shinzo [Abe]” and said Japan “needs to help us if the US is attacked,” the network said. The report implied the closeness between the two leaders, with Trump referring to Abe by his given name.

It remains unclear whether the Fuji TV report is based in fact. The network did not disclose any source or basis for its report, saying only that it was “based on our network’s investigation.”

Fuji TV is an affiliate of Japan’s far right-leaning Sankei Shimbun newspaper. Conservative news outlets in Japan have recently been publishing reports about Trump’s unhappiness with South Korea and the strength of the US-Japan alliance on an almost daily basis.

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent

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