North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is praising President Trump’s “realistic” approach to negotiations with Pyongyang, North Korea’s leading state-run newspaper reported Wednesday after the landmark summi
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is praising President Trump’s “realistic” approach to negotiations with Pyongyang, North Korea’s leading state-run newspaper reported Wednesday after the landmark summit between the two leaders.
Mr. Kim “highly praised the president’s will and enthusiasm to resolve matters in a realistic way through dialogue and negotiations, away from the hostility-woven past,” the newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported in extensive coverage of the summit.
The paper also reported that Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump “gladly accepted each other’s invitation” to visit Pyongyang and Washington, respectively, in follow-up meetings from the denuclearization summit.
At their meeting in Singapore, Mr. Kim pledged the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula, although the agreement lacks details of how that could be achieved.
The coverage in the state-run paper, including 33 images of Mr. Trump, Mr. Kim and others at the summit, praised the “will of the top leaders of the two countries to put an end to the extreme hostile relations between the DPRK and the U.S.”
According to a summary in NK News, the coverage in North Korea highlighted Mr. Trump’s promise to end joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, but didn’t mention Mr. Kim’s promise to destroy a major missile-engine test site in North Korea.
Mr. Trump, who returned to the White House Wednesday morning, said as a result of the summit, “everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office.”
“There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea,” he tweeted. “Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!”
Democrats are scoffing at the president’s assessment.
“This is truly delusional,” tweeted Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat. “It [North Korea] has same arsenal today as 48 hours ago. Does he really think his big photo-op ended the [North Korea‘s] nuclear program? Hope does not equal reality.”
