sacrosanct 復習

　トランプ大統領は、米国防総省に対し、北朝鮮の金委員長との会合が行われるのを前に、韓国からの米軍撤退を命じました。

WASHINGTON — President Trump has ordered the Pentagon to prepare options for drawing down American troops in South Korea, just weeks before he holds a landmark meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, according to several people briefed on the deliberations.

Reduced troop levels are not intended to be a bargaining chip in Mr. Trump’s talks with Mr. Kim about his weapons program, these officials said. But they acknowledged that a peace treaty between the two Koreas could diminish the need for the 23,500 soldiers currently stationed on the peninsula.

Mr. Trump has been determined to withdraw troops from South Korea, arguing that the United States is not adequately compensated for the cost of maintaining them, that the troops are mainly protecting Japan and that decades of American military presence had not prevented the North from becoming a nuclear threat.

His latest push coincides with tense negotiations with South Korea over how to share the cost of the military force. Under an agreement that expires at the end of 2018, South Korea pays about half the cost of the upkeep of the soldiers — more than $800 million a year. The Trump administration is demanding that it pay for virtually the entire cost of the military presence.

(中略)

Kelly E. Magsamen, a top Asia policy official at the Pentagon during the Obama administration, said, “U.S. presence in South Korea is a sacrosanct part of our alliance.”

The South Korean government reiterated this week that the troops were still needed and would not be pulled out as a result of a peace treaty with North Korea. But even close allies of President Moon Jae-in have raised doubts about the rationale for a long-term American presence.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/world/asia/trump-troops-south-korea.html

　sacrosanct /sˈækroʊs`æŋ(k)t/ を取り上げます。『ジーニアス英和辞典第5版』(大修館) によると 「極めて神聖な、犯すことのできない」といった意味があります。『ケンブリッジ英英辞典』をみてみると “thought to be too important or too special to be changed” あるいは “so important that there cannot be any change or question ”と定義されていて、とても大事されそれに取って代わるものなどない不変な存在を表していると窺えます。
　sacrosanct は 「神聖な」という意味を含む “sacer” と、同じく「神聖な」といったニュアンスを含む “sancire” が組合わさってできた語であるとわかりました。この「神聖な、聖なる」といった意味合いのある二つの語を重ねた sacrosanct は「より一層神聖な、極めて神聖な」という意になると頷けます。
　アメリカと北朝鮮両首脳による会談で、特に核開発問題はどう収束するのか世界中が注目をしています。(Happidra)