Trump plays down latest North Korea missile test fires
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday downplayed recent missile tests by North Korea and flattered the country’s leader as a friend with a “great and beautiful vision for his country,” as the U.S. tries to lure Kim Jong Un back to nuclear talks.
Trump’s series of three tweets — which take great pains to excuse the actions of a man he once dismissed as “Little Rocket Man” — shows just how much the president has riding on North Korea. Despite widespread skepticism that Kim will give up his prized nuclear weapons program, Trump regularly touts his personal diplomacy with Kim as a great success.
Trump tweeted that North Korea’s recent tests of short-range missiles weren’t part of the commitments he and Kim made at their historic June 2018 summit in Singapore, although he conceded they might be in violation of a U.N. resolution.
“There may be a United Nations violation, but Chairman Kim does not want to disappoint me with a violation of trust,” Trump tweeted. “There is far too much for North Korea to gain — the potential as a Country, under Kim Jong Un’s leadership, is unlimited.”
Trump said Kim can only achieve his “great and beautiful vision for his country” if Trump is the U.S. president.
“He will do the right thing because he is far too smart not to, and he does not want to disappoint his friend, President Trump!”
Trump has frequently called his diplomacy a success and said the U.S. would have been war with North Korea if he hadn’t made a breakthrough with Kim.
The North’s new missile launches came as the United Kingdom, France and Germany — following a closed U.N. Security Council briefing — condemned the North’s recent ballistic activity as violations of U.N. sanctions and urged Pyongyang to engage in “meaningful negotiations” with the United States on eliminating its nuclear weapons.
Trump’s chief U.S. envoy to North Korea, Stephen Biegun, had hoped to meet Friday in Thailand with a representative of North Korea. But North Korea stayed away from the annual gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which has served as a venue for their talks in the past.
Unable to meet with a North Korean official, Biegun met with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts to discuss prospects for resuming the stalled denuclearization negotiations with the North.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said earlier Friday that he wished North Korea had sent its foreign minister to the meeting. But he also expressed optimism that talks would resume soon.