Shannon, Ireland – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to cast doubt on news reports of North Korean executions as part of a purge in the aftermath of a failed Hanoi summit and lamented that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was blamed too quickly.
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Asked about South Korean reports that North Korea had executed a top diplomat, Trump said, “I don’t know if the reports are correct.”
“They like to blame Kim Jong Un immediately,” Trump said during an appearance with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
Trump has famously sided with autocratic leaders, including saying last July he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin over U.S. intelligence findings that Russia had attempted to sway the 2016 presidential election.
In May, he said he agreed with the North Korean leader’s criticism of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate.
There have been conflicting reports about shakeups in the North Korean diplomatic team. South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo said last week that nuclear envoy Kim Hyok Chol was executed in March along with four foreign ministry officials after they were charged with spying for the United States.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the account. Previously, some North Korean officials who were reported to have been executed or purged reappeared later with new titles.
CNN reported on Tuesday, however, that Kim Hyok Chol was alive and in state custody.
The South Korean newspaper said earlier that the former top nuclear negotiator, Kim Yong Chol, had been sent to a labor camp. He was then pictured on Monday in a state media photo accompanying Kim Jong Un to an art performance.
In his comments, Trump appeared to mistake the senior official who was reported to have been sent to hard labor for the negotiator who was reported to have been executed.
“They said he was killed but he wasn’t. He was at the theater the other night. So he wasn’t killed. The other four people I know nothing about,” Trump said.
The February summit in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, the second between Kim and Trump, failed to reach a deal because of conflicts over U.S. calls for Pyongyang’s complete denuclearization and North Korean demands for sanctions relief.
Diplomatic efforts have stalled since then, and North Korea conducted short-range missile tests last month.
But Trump struck an upbeat tone. “It’s been going pretty well because there hasn’t been testing of anything major,” he said. “I think that Chairman Kim would like to make a deal and I’d like to make a deal with him, and I look forward to seeing him at the appropriate time.”
Its great when a US prez defends a mass murderer. Trump would have defended hitler and probably joined him with the vile ‘America Firsters’ nazis. Un is a killer. Gooogle his bloody record.
Ireland? One of the two resolutions passed by the Dublin City Councillors read: “Since its violent establishment in 1948 through the ethnic cleansing of more than half of the indigenous people of Palestine, the state of Israel has denied Palestinians their fundamental rights and has refused to comply with international law.”
The resolution, proposed by leftist Councillor John Lyons, goes on to level various accusations against Israel before stating that “this City Council fully supports and endorses the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement for freedom, equality, and justice.”
The text further states that Dublin will cut all business ties with Hewlett-Packard, arguing that the technology giant ”provides and operates much of the technology infrastructure that Israel uses to maintain its system of apartheid and settler colonialism over the Palestinian people.”
Another resolution, proposed by Mac Donncha, called on the national government to expel Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Ze’ev Boker.
They have pictures of the so called dead people at meetings. Reminds us of all the Gazans that get killed in various pictures with the same clothes on. How many times do you think these can get killed and still come up a few hours to days later??