Trump unveils new security team: Tough on China and North Korea

[Anchor]

Trump's second-term cabinet appointments are being announced.

As expected, the key figures are loyalists.

Elon Musk, who played a significant role in the election victory, has been appointed as the head of the newly established Department of Government Efficiency, and Pete Hegseth, a strong supporter of Trump and a Fox News host, has been unexpectedly appointed as Secretary of Defense.

Michael Waltz, a congressman who will serve as the White House National Security Advisor, is someone who will implement America First policy emphasized by Trump.

Senator Marco Rubio, a strong candidate for Secretary of State, is also a loyalist close to Trump.

These three key figures in Trump's foreign and security team share a commonality in being hardliners towards China and North Korea.

What policies will emerge in the future? Washington correspondent Kim Kyung-soo has looked into it.

[Report]

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump emphasized "peace through strength" when nominating Congressman Michael Waltz as National Security Advisor.

Waltz, a former Army Special Forces member with combat experience in Afghanistan and elsewhere, has criticized military cooperation between Russia and North Korea as a dangerous and evil alliance.

He is also a hardliner regarding China, having advocated for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics.

[Michael Waltz/National Security Advisor Nominee/2021/Bloomberg Interview: "America needs to wake up to the fact that the Chinese Communist Party is in a cold war with the United States, and we are falling behind."]

Pete Hegseth, the nominee for Secretary of Defense and a former Fox News anchor, is also a hardline conservative who has emphasized the threat from China.

[Pete Hegseth/Secretary of Defense Nominee/Last June/Fox News: "Because China is building a military built to defeat the United States, the United States right now has a military mostly focused on fighting the last war."]

Senator Marco Rubio, who is likely to be nominated as Secretary of State, is also classified as a hawk.

While serving on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, he has voiced strong opinions on issues concerning China and Iran, and notably co-sponsored the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which China is sensitive about.

Senator Rubio has consistently shown interest in security on the Korean Peninsula and human rights issues in North Korea, arguing that we should not just provide aid to North Korea.

[Marco Rubio/U.S. Senator/2015/CNN debate: "There is a lunatic in North Korea with dozens of nuclear weapons and a long-range rocket that can already hit the very place in which we stand tonight."]

With Trump's second-term security team being filled with loyalists and hawks, there is a prevailing outlook that pressure targeting China and North Korea will intensify.

This is Kim Kyung-soo from KBS News in Washington.