美国国家公共电台 NPR North Korea Test-Fires First Missile Under Trump's Presidency

 

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

North Korea may be testing the new U.S. administration. It fired its first ballistic missile of the year, its first under the Trump¹ administration. To talk more about this, we've called NPR's Elise Hu in Seoul, and she joins us on the line.

Good morning.

ELISE HU, BYLINE²: Good morning.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So Elise, what do we know about this test missile?

HU: It was fired just before 8 o'clock in the morning local time Sunday, from North Korea into the Sea of Japan. That's the body of water between Korea and Japan. It flew about 300 miles before crash-landing into the ocean, and it didn't create any damage. And I should note this happened during dinnertime on the American east coast. That's important because President Trump was with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at that moment. And the two of them had a hastily arranged press conference where Abe condemned³ the attack and Trump backed him up with one brief comment.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: President Trump speaking there with the Japanese prime minister.

What can you tell us about the timing⁴? It seems rather interesting that this took place right when the Japanese prime minister is in the United States.

HU: Exactly. That's a good point. And North Korea hasn't stated its motives⁵ explicitly⁶. But observers are pointing to a couple of things - one, that the Kim Jong-un regime has committed itself to perfecting missile technology, so you have to test in order to do that; the other possibility is that North Korea wanted to remind everyone that it's still there. You know, we've seen a lot of diplomacy⁷ in this region lately with the defense⁸ secretary, James Mattis, coming out here last week. We've seen President Trump affirm the One-China policy just over this last week. The other possibility is that this has little to do with global affairs and more to do with just shoring up domestic allegiance to the regime within North Korea.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Right. So it's always very difficult to know what is going on in North Korea. But how will the Trump administration respond to North Korea, do you think, longer term?

HU: That's a huge question mark, Lulu. The Trump White House is believed to be doing a top-to-bottom review of North Korea policy. But even after they do that, the options here are limited. So this is a vexing⁹ question. President Barack Obama actually is said to have told Trump during the transition that North Korea should be the biggest foreign policy priority for the new administration.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Elise Hu is our Seoul correspondent.

Elise, thanks so much.

HU: You bet.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

4 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

5 motives   

n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to impeach sb's motives 怀疑某人的动机
• His motives are unclear. 他的用意不明。

6 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

7 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

8 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

9 vexing   

adj.使人烦恼的，使人恼火的v.使烦恼( vex的现在分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论

参考例句：

• It is vexing to have to wait a long time for him. 长时间地等他真使人厌烦。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Lately a vexing problem had grown infuriatingly worse. 最近发生了一个讨厌的问题，而且严重到令人发指的地步。 来自辞典例句