Since his return from the Singapore summit, American President Donald Trump could not stop himself from glorifying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In a single meeting, Kim changed from a "little rocket man" to a "very smart guy" and a "great negotiator" for Trump.
The sudden change in the opinion is surprising given the past performance of the North Korean leader in handling the national affairs.
In conversation with Fox News' Bret Baier on Air Force One while leaving Singapore, Trump unveiled his experience of meeting Kim during the summit. "He's a tough guy," the president said in the interview that was aired on Wednesday.
"When you take over a country, a tough country, tough people and you take it over from your father – I don't care who you are, what you are, how much of an advantage you have – if you can do that at 27 years old, that's one in 10,000 that could do that. So he's a very smart guy. He's a great negotiator, but I think we understand each other," he remarked.
Trump other comments like -- the North Korean leader "loves his people" and he's a "funny guy" are quite tough to justify as the latter has been criticized worldwide for offending human rights since he took office. "Yeah, but so have a lot of other people have done some really bad things," Trump defended in his interview with Fox News. "I mean, I could go through a lot of nations where a lot of bad things were done."
In 2017, Human Rights Watch declared North Korea as one of the most "repressive authoritarian states in the world." The 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea stated that between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners were imprisoned in the country. The report also accused the nation of committing various crimes against humanity.
The same year witnessed North Korea sending a 22-year-old American, Otto Warmbier, back to the US in a coma. The man was imprisoned for over a year in the Kim-led nation. Warmbier died a couple of days after he returned. That was the time when Trump criticized North Korea for lacking even the "basic human decency."
And today, the leader of the same nation has transformed into a "funny" and "very smart" guy for President Trump.
