Donald Trump is in love with Kim Jong-un.
Speaking at a “Make America Great Again” rally in Wheeling, West Virginia on Saturday, the U.S. president said that he and the North Korean leader have fallen in love over “beautiful letters” they exchanged in recent months.
It was not too long ago when both parties referred to each other as “Little Rocket Man” and “mentally deranged U.S. dotard.”
“I was really being tough, and so was he. And we would go back and forth. And then we fell in love, okay?” Trump said.
The audience burst out laughing.
“No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love.”
Subscribe to
NextShark's Newsletter
A daily dose of Asian America's essential stories, in under 5 minutes.
Get our collection of Asian America's most essential stories to your inbox daily for free.
Unsure? Check out our Newsletter Archive.
Trump then anticipated how critics would react.
“But you know what? Now they’ll make, they’ll say, ‘Donald Trump said they fell in love, how horrible. How horrible is that? So unpresidential.’”
Trump was talking about letters addressing the North Korean nuclear issue, the center of the historic summit between the two leaders in June.
Kim, however, was not only trying to build a nuclear arsenal outside international laws. Before that agenda, his regime has a laundry list of alleged human rights violations, including overwork, rape, starvation, torture and systematic murder, according to the International Bar Association.
While Trump has been showering Kim with warm words, a North Korean official said that denuclearization is not happening until the U.S. backs them with action.
Pyongyang, which has been struggling with countless economic sanctions, has vowed to eliminate its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security guarantees from Washington.
“Without any trust in the U.S., there will be no confidence in our national security, and under such circumstances, there is no way we will unilaterally disarm ourselves first,” North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho told the United Nations on Saturday.
North Korea aims to achieve denuclearization along with the establishment of a peace regime on the Korean peninsula, which had been at war for decades.
However, that concern is being cast aside as the U.S. pressures North Korea to denuclearize first through more sanctions, Ri said.
As a result, the U.S. and North Korea entered a period of stalled negotiations. A second summit is being planned.
“The reason behind the recent deadlock is because the U.S. relies on coercive methods, which are lethal to trust-building,” Ri said. “The DPRK government’s commitment to denuclearization is solid and firm. However, it is only possible if the U.S. secures our sufficient trust towards the U.S.”
