It’s not a good idea to mock Kim

Global Times (China)

U.S. President Donald Trump does not understand diplomacy in the context of Asia, said the Global Times. When speaking by phone to South Korean President Moon Jae-in last week, Trump called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man” for his habit of testing ever more powerful ballistic missiles. He then used the pejorative name on Twitter for the entire world to see. “It’s probably no big deal to use nicknames in American culture,” but this is not a freewheeling political campaign. It is nuclear diplomacy. In North Korea, mocking the leader is a capital offense. If Kim takes Trump’s throwaway comment as a deliberate

insult, “Pyongyang may become more hostile to Washington, adding fuel to the fire of the current confrontation.” And if Trump really did mean to provoke Kim, then his strategy is “definitely neither masterful nor morally justifiable.” The North Korean regime is not an eccentric, unpredictable actor, as Westerners mistakenly think. It has “a classical geopolitical mindset,” believing it can preserve its existence only through military strength. The regime is preoccupied with being respected on the world stage. It is never appropriate for world leaders to engage in name-calling; for Trump and Kim, such behavior could have deadly consequences.