Trump signature reveals guarded personality
‘Alpha male’ handshakes as Trump, Kim meet, but body language shows some nerves
Kim Jong-un’s distinctive signature, penned on a historic agreement with US President Donald Trump yesterday, indicates his ambition and creativity, handwriting experts said.
Trump’s signature, by contrast, indicates a more guarded personality, they said.
Graphologist Koo Bon-jin said Kim’s signature suggested an ambitious man who is “intuitive, rather than rational and logical”.
“He also writes very fast, which indicates he’s quick-witted and impatient,” Koo added.
Kim’s signature contrasts with Trump’s angular, closely packed autograph, said Karen Leong, a body language expert and director of Singapore-based consultants Influence Solutions.
“There is tremendous space between each character, which indicates a creative individual who is open to taking on new ideas, to evolving,” Leong said of Kim’s signature. “It indicates a confident person with big dreams and ambitions.”
Trump’s signature, which Leong said looked like “arrows or skyscrapers”, points to people who “tend to wear a mask to hide their true nature”.
“While both signatures are very different, as both men really have different personalities, both in their own way want to make their mark,” she added.
Ahn Chan-il, a former North Korean military officer who heads the World Institute for North Korea Studies in Seoul, said Kim’s slanting signature was similar to those of his father and grandfather, both former leaders of North Korea.
In their first moments of meeting each other, Trump and Kim both sought to project a sense of command but displayed some anxiety at the start of their highstakes summit in Singapore.
Body language experts said that in the 13 seconds or so the US president held on to the hand of Kim for the first time, he projected his usual dominance by reaching out first, and patting the North Korean leader’s shoulder.
Not to be outdone, Kim firmly pumped Trump’s hand, looking him straight in the eye for the duration, before breaking off to face the media.
“It wasn’t a straight-out handshake,” said Allan Pease, an Australian body language expert and author of several books on the topic, including The Definitive Guide to Body Language.
“It was up and down, there was an argy-bargy, each one was pulling the other closer. Each guy wasn’t letting the other get a dominant grip,” he told Reuters by telephone from Melbourne.