Trump sure Kim 'does not want to disappoint his friend, President Trump!'
Stressing the personal rapport he says he has built with Kim in three meetings since June last year, Trump said: "He will do the right thing because he is far too smart not to.
By REUTERSU.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un leave after signing documents that acknowledge the progress of the talks and pledge to keep momentum going, after their summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore June 12, 2018.(photo credit: JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS)
US President Donald Trump sought again on Friday to play down North Korea's three short-range missiles tests in eight days, saying they did not break any agreement he had with Kim Jong Un and he was sure the North Korean leader did not want to disappoint him.In an apparent reference to Kim's pledge not to resume testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs frozen since 2017, Trump said on Twitter: "Chairman Kim does not want to disappoint me with a violation of trust.""There is far too much for North Korea to gain - the potential as a Country, under Kim Jong Un’s leadership, is unlimited. Also, there is far too much to lose," said Trump, who has taken to flattering Kim while also maintaining tough sanctions on his totalitarian country.Stressing the personal rapport he says he has built with Kim in three meetings since June last year, Trump said: "He will do the right thing because he is far too smart not to, and he does not want to disappoint his friend, President Trump!"Despite Trump's words, North Korea has embarrassed the US president by testing the missiles even though he and Kim agreed at a June 30 meeting to revive stalled denuclearization talks.The talks have yet to resume, and analysts believe the tests are designed both to improve North Korean military capabilities and to pressure Washington to offer more concessions.A summit between Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February collapsed after they failed to reconcile differences between US demands for North Korea's complete denuclearization and Pyongyang's demands for relief from punishing sanctions.Trump said on Friday the short-range tests "may be a United Nations violation," but he and Kim had never discussed such missiles.North Korean short-range missiles pose no threat to US territory, but they do put at risk US allies Japan and South Korea and the tens of thousands of US troops stationed there.Testing of such missiles is covered by a 2006 United Nations Security Council resolution demanding that North Korea suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program.The North Korean Foreign Ministry said Pyongyang had always rejected "illegally fabricated" U.N. resolutions. The decision to suspend ICBM and nuclear tests was taken out of "goodwill and consideration for (a) dialog partner," a ministry statement said."It is by no means part of acts to recognize and abide by the UNSC's absurd "resolutions," it said.North Korea criticized Britain, France and Germany who issued a statement after a closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting on Thursday urging North Korea to engage in "meaningful" talks with the United States and saying that sanctions need to be fully enforced until Pyongyang dismantles its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.The North Korean statement accused the U.N. Security Council of "groundlessly slandering" Pyongyang's development of conventional weaponry "while turning blind eyes to the war exercises in south Korea and shipment of cutting-edge attack weapons into it."North Korea has demanded that the United States and South Korea call off joint military drills planned for this month, saying they would violate a pledge by Trump to Kim, also criticizing Washington's supply of new weapons to Seoul.Pyongyang has also warned of a possible end to its freeze on nuclear and long-range missile tests, which Trump has repeatedly held up as evidence of successful engagement with Kim.
