On Tuesday North Korea snubbed Donald Trump once again by brushing off a suggestion by the former president that he would improve relations with the country if elected president in November.
Trump told the Republican National Convention he got along with Kim, and that the North Korean leader probably wanted him back in the White House. “I think he misses me, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said.
An anonymous commentary in the North Korean Central News Agency, or NKCNA, a state-controlled media organization whose content reflects official thinking, indicated that no matter who was elected in the U.S. presidential elections, relations between the two are unlikely to be warm.
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“No matter what administration takes office in the U.S., the political climate, which is confused by the infighting of the two parties, does not change and, accordingly, we do not care about this,” said the commentary in NKCNA.
North Korea is a small, economically weak regime. But it has a nuclear weapons program and spends roughly 16 percent of total government expenditure on defense, making it a thorn in the side of American foreign policy officials.
Donald Trump has always had a complicated relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Sometimes bromance, sometimes bitter rivalry, the two have long traded barbs.
As president, Trump had tried to force North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons program.
In 2017, Trump called the North Korean leader “rocket man” and said the Asian regime would “be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
Kim later called Trump a “dotard”, a 14th century term used to describe an elderly person, especially one who has become senile.
In 2019 relations began to soften. At one rally, Trump said he and Kim had been exchanging letters, claiming the two had fallen in love.
The leaders met three times, culminating in Trump becoming the first U.S. president to visit North Korea. Well, sort of: he walked 20 steps into the country.
Trump has been making bold claims about what he might achieve if elected president. Patching up relations with North Korea can be added to a long list including a promise to end the war in Ukraine and to achieve peace in the Middle East.
