President Donald Trump complimented Kim Jong Un as “very honorable” so far and said he hopes to hold his summit with the North Korean leader “very soon.”
The praise for the North Korean leader is a dramatic shift for the U.S., which has long criticized the Kim family dynasty for brutality and deceit. Trump himself last year derided Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and said it is “hard to believe his people, and the military, put up with living in such horrible conditions.”
“We’re having very good discussions,” Trump told reporters at the White House during a meeting with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron. “Kim Jong Un — he really has been very open and I think very honorable from everything we’re seeing.”
“I think we have a chance of doing something very special with respect to North Korea — good for them, good for us, good for everybody,” Trump added.
But, he said, if Kim doesn’t agree to something “fair and reasonable and good, I will, unlike past administrations, I will leave the table.”
Trump said in preparations for the summit the U.S. has “been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible.”