Speculation runs riot on world’s two most unpredictable leaders
NORTH KOREA’S record on human rights was off the table as its leader and the US president shook hands, with critics accusing Mr Trump of helping legitimise Kim Jong-un as his equal on the world stage.
Mr Kim is suspected of ordering the public assassination of his half-brother with a nerve agent, executing his uncle and presiding over a notorious gulag estimated to hold 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners.
Despite telling Congress that “no regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea,” Mr Trump’s focus was on nuclear weapons.
Robert King, who served as US envoy on North Korean humanrights issues under Barack Obama’s administration, said Mr Trump had used human rights as an instrument to get Mr Kim to the negotiating table, but not as a policy priority in its own right.
Human rights activist Greg Scarlatoiu and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said in a statement: “Liberal democracies shouldn’t try to guarantee the survival of a regime that runs political prison camps and commits crimes against humanity.” THE UNPRECEDENTED comingtogether of perhaps the world’s two most unpredictable leaders had observers desperately reading between the lines.
Kim Jong-un’s choice of his Mao-style buttoned-up suit, rather than the grey western-style outfit he wore in January at the start of his charm offensive, surprised many onlookers, as did the absence of a national lapel pin with images of his late father and grandfather. Every dutiful North Korean must wear them as part of the personality cult surrounding the Kim family.
Some pundits said his outfit indicated he wanted to maintain his country’s socialist identity while at the same time pushing to improve ties with the outside world.
Analysts also speculated that the absence of a badge on his lapel may reflect his desire to open a new era by staying out of the shadows of his predecessors.
Mr Kim is 5ft 8in, about 7in shorter than Mr Trump, but when the two stood together, the height difference was not that noticeable.
South Korean media speculated Mr Kim may have put on platform shoes or elevated shoe inserts.
His father Kim Jong-Il was reported to have favoured platform shoes and a bouffant hairstyle to appear taller.
Mr Kim often wears a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. In March, TV footage showed him putting them on to read South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s letter conveyed by South Korean envoys, though he did not wear them when he met them. South Korean media suggested his sight may have deteriorated due to diabetes caused by obesity. Mr Trump, meanwhile, showed Mr Kim inside his presidential car, The president gestured to the vehicle and a Secret Service agent opened the right passenger door for Mr Kim. The seven-seat armoured limousine, nicknamed The Beast, reportedly costs $2m and can be turned into a sealed panic room said to be able to resist chemical attacks and bombs. Mr Kim travelled in a BMW7 limousine, surrounded by running bodyguards.