At a political rally at Wesbanco Arena in Wheeling, West Virginia on Saturday night, President Donald Trump claimed that he “fell in love” with Kim Jong-un, the ruler of North Korea.
Said Trump, “I like Kim and he likes me. I guess that’s okay — am I allowed to say that?”
“I was really tough and so was he, and we went back and forth,” Trump told attendees of the rally, regarding the summit both leaders attended in June. “And then we fell in love, OK? No, really, he wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love.”
While President Trump has often shown admiration for the world’s dictators, his reversal on Kim Jong-un is remarkable. It was just one year ago that the Resident was demeaning the Supreme Leader by calling him “Little Rocket Man.”
Per a report from Human Rights Watch, North Korea under Kim John-un is one of the world’s more repressive countries.
After the June summit, trump claimed he had reached an agreement with North Korea over denuclearization, but no such agreement was signs, and discussions continue with the country. North Korea has shown no sign of stopping their plans, expecting the US to make the first moves.
“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,” said Ri Yong-ho, North Korea’s foreign minister, on Saturday at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Trump agrees that the U.S. has no made any concessions to North Korea.
“The other day, on a good network, I heard one of the anchor’s say ‘why has President Trump given up so much?'” Trump told the crowd at the rally. “I didn’t give up anything, really. I didn’t give up anything. What did I give up? I gave up nothing.”
Statements like this are unlikely to aid the goal of denuclearizing North Korea.
Image via screen capture from video source.