美国国家公共电台 NPR--Biden begins a 5-day trip to Asia with a stop in South Korea

Biden begins a 5-day trip to Asia with a stop in South Korea

Transcript¹

President Biden is on his first trip to Asia since taking office. In South Korea and Japan, he'll try to coordinate² more closely with them on priorities including strategic competition with China.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Economic security, North Korea's nuclear program, China's growing dominance in the region. These are just some of the things that will be top of the agenda when President Biden speaks with South Korea's president for the first time. President Biden will go on to Japan this weekend. NPR's Anthony Kuhn joins us from Seoul. Anthony, good morning.

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE³: Hey, Rachel.

MARTIN: So South Korea's president took office less than two weeks ago. And he promised closer ties with the U.S. Explain the significance of that.

KUHN: Well, the two governments always talk about their ironclad alliance in this new president. Yoon Suk Yeol, has emphasized. The two countries' shared democratic values. But under the past South Korean administration of President Moon Jae-in, there were some feelings here in Seoul that Washington was not doing enough to get North Korea back to the nuclear negotiating table. And some officials in Washington felt that Seoul was being too timid about criticizing North Korea and China. And recently, China has warned South Korea, do not join the U.S. in any anti-China coalitions⁴. And since he took office, President Yoon has been careful not to ruffle⁵ feathers in Beijing. So I think observers will be watching to see whether he swings decisively towards either Beijing or Washington on this trip.

MARTIN: North Korea is in the middle of what it claims is its first COVID outbreak. Is that a concern in Seoul?

KUHN: Well, yeah. They went from zero cases last week to 2 million suspected cases now. And it'll be interesting to see whether the two presidents talk about ways to help North Korea. But North Korea has refused all aid, including offers of vaccines⁶ so far.

MARTIN: I mean, you talked about the concern over North Korea's nuclear program. Obviously, it always comes up when leaders of the U.S. and South Korea meet. But is there something in particular on the agenda for this?

KUHN: Well, North Korea has a knack⁷ for always testing weapons at a time that gives them the most political impact. So Seoul says it has a contingency⁸ plan in case they detonate an atomic bomb or test a missile while Biden is in town.

MARTIN: Trade is always on the agenda when U.S. presidents go to South Korea. What's the focus there?

KUHN: Well, the focus is going to be on economic security, which includes things like preventing rival powers, including China, from stealing technology, cutting supply chains, dominating high-tech⁹ areas such as superconductors and electric vehicles. And South Korea is a key player in both of these industries. So President Biden will be touting¹⁰ South Korean investments in factories to make these products in places like Texas and Georgia. And South Korean President Yoon, meanwhile, is expected to sign on to the U.S.'s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which is a new trade agreement that the Biden administration came up with partly to compete with China.

MARTIN: The war in Ukraine is dominating so much of the Biden administration's foreign policy. How will that play into Biden's conversations there?

KUHN: Well, Seoul and Tokyo have joined in sanctioning Russia, but the U.S. would also like South Korea to sell Ukraine weapons, and they seem unwilling¹¹ to do that. I spoke¹² to Wi Sung-lac, who's a former ambassador to Russia and former top negotiator on the North Korean nuclear issue. Here's what he said about Seoul's concerns.

WI SUNG-LAC: Broadly speaking, China, Russia and North Korea is, in a sense, on one side. And on the other side, we have United States, Japan and South Korea and the West. That faultline will be deepened, I think, in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.

KUHN: So basically, Seoul is concerned that Moscow and Beijing could team up with North Korea against them.

WI: NPR's Anthony Kuhn joining us from Seoul, South Korea, thank you.

KUHN: Thanks, Rachel.

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1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

3 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。

4 coalitions   

结合体，同盟( coalition的名词复数 )； （两党或多党）联合政府

参考例句：

• History testifies to the ineptitude of coalitions in waging war. 历史昭示我们，多数国家联合作战，其进行甚为困难。
• All the coalitions in history have disintegrated sooner or later. 历史上任何联盟迟早都垮台了。

5 ruffle   

v.弄皱，弄乱；激怒，扰乱；n.褶裥饰边

参考例句：

• Don't ruffle my hair.I've just combed it.别把我的头发弄乱了。我刚刚梳好了的。
• You shouldn't ruffle so easily.你不该那么容易发脾气。

6 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

7 knack   

n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法

参考例句：

• He has a knack of teaching arithmetic.他教算术有诀窍。
• Making omelettes isn't difficult,but there's a knack to it.做煎蛋饼并不难，但有窍门。

8 contingency   

n.意外事件，可能性

参考例句：

• We should be prepared for any contingency.我们应该对任何应急情况有所准备。
• A fire in our warehouse was a contingency that we had not expected.库房的一场大火是我们始料未及的。

9 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

10 touting   

v.兜售( tout的现在分词 )；招揽；侦查；探听赛马情报

参考例句：

• He's been touting his novel around publishers for years. 他几年来一直到处找出版商兜售自己的小说。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Technology industry leaders are touting cars as a hot area for growth. 科技产业领袖吹捧为增长热点地区的汽车。 来自互联网

11 unwilling   

adj.不情愿的

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• His tightfisted employer was unwilling to give him a raise.他那吝啬的雇主不肯给他加薪。

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。