Washington: US presidential candidate Donald Trump said that “getting along” with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is a “good thing,” after his Democratic rival Kamala Harris vowed not to “cosy up to” dictators like Kim.
During a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Friday, a key battleground state, former President Trump again boasted about his personal ties with the North Korean leader, Yonhap news agency reported.
He and the Vice President are in a tight race with the presidential election just a little over two months away.
“I got along with Kim Jong-un of North Korea. Remember I walked over … the first person to ever walk over from this country,” he said.
This is in reference to his visit to the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom in June 2019, where he briefly crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the North.
“We also looked at his nuclear capability. It’s very substantial … You know, getting along is a good thing. It’s not a bad thing,” Republican candidate Trump added. In her nomination acceptance speech in Chicago last Thursday, Harris took aim at Trump who has long touted his personal relations with Kim, saying that she will not “cosy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump.”
She claimed that dictators know Trump is “easy to manipulate with flattery and favours.” The two candidates’ remarks suggested their different visions for diplomacy toward North Korea. Trump’s boast of ties with Kim has raised the likelihood that he if reelected, could revive his personal diplomacy toward Pyongyang to address the North Korean nuclear quandary.
Harris is seen as favouring an approach focusing on cooperation with allies and partners to address evolving North Korean threats.
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