President Donald Trump admires how North Korean President Kim Jong-un is deferentially treated by his citizens. So much so that Trump said, “I want my people to do the same.”
“Hey, he’s the head of a country, and I mean, he’s the strong head — don’t let anyone think anything different,” Trump said during an interview on Friday on Fox and Friends. “He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”
When Trump said the last line, he pointed towards the White House, which could suggest that he was referring to his staff. Trump later told CNN he was “kidding.”
Still, many people on Twitter and beyond found the comment disconcerting, given North Korea’s human rights violations and prison camps.
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“These crimes against humanity entail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation,” according to a 2014 United Nations report. “The commission further finds that crimes against humanity are ongoing in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea because the policies, institutions and patterns of impunity that lie at their heart remain in place.”
Kim has also brutally murdered officials and his own family members. According to the New York Times, he ordered 340 executions during his first six years in power.
On Tuesday, Trump met with Kim in Singapore, where the two signed a joint statement aimed at denuclearization — though there were few details about implementation. (The four-point peace pledge can be read here.)
And Friday’s Fox and Friends interview was not the first time that Trump voiced admiration for Kim. During a Tuesday interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump said Kim’s “got a very good personality, he’s funny, and he’s very, very smart.”
Trump also said on Friday that he would be willing to invite the North Korean president to the United States. “I would have him,” Trump said. “I think it’s something that could happen.”
