Trump calls Kim Jong Un a friend and plays down North Korea's nuclear arsenal
Donald Trump called Kim Jong Un "a friend" and said North Korea's nuclear capacity, while "pretty large", was "not like us", answering a reporter's question on Tuesday.
United States President Donald Trump has called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “a friend” and played down concerns over Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, saying “as long as I’m around, he’s going to be fine”.
Trump made the remarks at the White House on Tuesday after meeting leaders of US artificial intelligence companies, when a reporter asked why North Korea could possess nuclear weapons while Iran could not. “He happens to be a friend of mine, Kim Jong Un, he’s a friend of mine. He likes Trump, doesn’t like a lot of other people. I’m about the only person in the entire world that he likes, and I like him,” he told reporters. “I get a lot of heat when I say that.”
He described North Korea’s nuclear capacity as “pretty large” but “not like us”, and blamed previous US administrations for failing to curb Pyongyang. “Because you had a different president, and they could have stopped him,” he said. “But they had presidents that weren’t Trump, and they didn’t stop.”
The comments land amid a sharp gap in estimates of North Korea’s arsenal. South Korea’s defence minister, Ahn Gyu-back, said last week that the North possessed between 80 and 120 nuclear warheads — far above Trump’s recent claim of 57.
Trump held summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, but talks broke down over US demands for denuclearisation. He has said he wants in-person talks with Kim before the end of the year, though Pyongyang has not formally agreed.
Sources
More on this topic: all World stories
.jpg){kind=link}