JOHN DICKERSON: What do you make of the North Korean leader?Presumably, Trump is offering Kim Jong-un respect and trying to draw him into cooperation.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I have -- I really, you know, have no comment on him. People are saying, "Is he sane?" I have no idea. I can tell you this, and a lot of people don't like when I say it, but he was a young man of 26 or 27 when he took over from his father, when his father died. He's dealing with obviously very tough people, in particular the generals and others. And at a very young age, he was able to assume power. A lot of people, I'm sure, tried to take that power away, whether it was his uncle or anybody else. And he was able to do it. So obviously, he's a pretty smart cookie. But we have a situation that we just cannot let -- we cannot let what's been going on for a long period of years continue. And frankly, this should've been done and taken care of by the Obama administration. Should've been taken care of by the Bush administration. Should've been taken care of by Clinton.
Note the fleeting reference to the uncle. If you don't remember that story, here's a news piece from January 2015, "It Turns Out Kim Jong-un's Uncle Was Not Fed To A Pack Of Wild Dogs." And here's the Wikipedia article on the uncle, Jang Song-thaek:
A 2700-word statement was released, stating that the "despicable human scum Jang, who was worse than a dog, perpetrated thrice-cursed acts of treachery in betrayal of such profound trust and warmest paternal love shown by the party and the leader for him"...
He was also accused of undermining the Kim personality cult, which included placing a granite monument carved with the supreme leader's words "in a shaded corner"; letting "the decadent capitalist lifestyle find its way to our society by distributing all sorts of pornographic pictures among his confidants"; and "half-heartedly clapping, touching off towering resentment of our service personnel and people" when one of Kim Jong-un's promotions was announced.
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Trump is the smart cookie.
Immediate reaction from the Left: Trump loves and admires Kim.
Flattery will not help now. And saying the little thug killer is a smart little thug killer is not flattery.
DJT means that he is having trouble getting the NORKS to draw first. Raylan (I mean Donald ) wants the Chinese to save face by making Trump's total killing him to look like it is a justified shooting.
He was a very young man, dealing with very tough people....
SDonald Trump's been saying this kind of thing about Kim Jong Un in a number of interviews. This is a little better than others, as he's only trying to argue that he is rational.
Trump's value free remarks, which just come off wrong even though it does not really indicate tolerance, sound similar to what he said about Tiananmen Square in 1990.
Trump also seemed to me to have Kim Jong Un'sa age when he assumed power wrong. I think in this interview he was a little cautious and no longer aged 26 or 27
Maybe it's not wrong.
Wikipedia does have him 27 when his father died and assuming power perhaps just before his 28th birthday: (they don't know if he was born January 8 or July 5, 1984)
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong-un
The fanily tree diagram has him born in 1983. Kim Jong Il (once called by Jesse Helms, Kim Jong the Second) always had his date of birth given as 1942, but the famly tree says 1941.
This newspaper story says:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-secret-life-of-kim-jong-uns-aunt-who-has-lived-in-the-us-since-1998/2016/05/26/522e4ec8-12d7-11e6-a9b5-bf703a5a7191_story.html
"They can reveal, for example, that Kim Jong Un was born in 1984 – not 1982 or 1983, as has been widely believed. The reason they're certain? It was the same year that their first son was born. "He and my son were playmates from birth. I changed both of their diapers", Ko said with a laugh."
Trump may be trying to day maybe Kim Jong Un is not really that reckless.
Trump keeps on warning people something may happen. I think it's eithe the testing of an ICBM (that doesn't fail at launch) or a violation of the ceasefire, although maybe that could be contained. Kim probably thinks he's scaring off the United States, but that;s not quite what is happening.
It doesn't matter if Trump's judgement or assumption about Chinese intentions are right - Trump will look only at the results.
He doesn't believe, which is the general consensus of the U.S. military, that Kim will forever be unable to build a missile that works. It might last longer than people think though, and the Chinese could be doing something there, trying to put;ast Trump.
Presumably, Trump is offering Kim Jong-un respect and trying to draw him into cooperation.
Don't ever presume with Trump.
Kim is smart enough to kill anyone who poses a threat.
a) Trump fills dead space in the conversation by blathering and giving people compliments.
b) He's not exactly wrong. A phrase you'll see in histories of old-time monarchies is "dynastic murders," where everybody in the succession who wasn't the heir got bumped off. Nowadays we call it "consolidating power," because the passive voice is what the cool kids use. Think Richard III, or the running gag of the heirs murdering each other in "Stardust."
In the West, we sometimes see Kim Jong-Un as a comical fat kid who inherited a country and keeps murdering his rivals. But you could say something very similar about Emperor Augustus (who wasn't fat or comical, but still).
I found it interesting that Trump said North Korea disrespected Xi by going forward with the missle launch. I don't recall a President ever trying this tactic. I may be wrong.
Is that a ham-handed attempt to use Asian culture of shame to make China act. Is it so obvious that the Chinese will laugh it off. Or will it put Xi in a tight place and make him act to save face.
Or the Tudors, who were succeeded by the Stuarts as "constitutional" kings, though Charles I had to have that put to him in more forceful terms.
Trump wasn't offering Dictator Kim "respect". He was providing a description & that was one component of the description. Sheesh.
Kim is a smart little dumpling.
I wonder about the clapping. Is there a signal to stop? Otherwise who would voluntarily be the first to stop?
I wonder about the clapping. Is there a signal to stop? Otherwise who would voluntarily be the first to stop?
Stalin had such a signal.
Khrushchev, too because it continued, for a while.
Kim Jong UN has been compared to Caligula, also - and there actually was a Korean monarch some six or seven hundred years ago.
trump is saying he's maybe not so wild. He also seems to think the uncle (by marriage) was actually trying to take power. That can't the murder of his half brother.
@Steve Uhr
From Gulag Archipelago:
At the conclusion of the conference, a tribute to Comrade Stalin was called for. Of course, everyone stood up (just as everyone had leaped to his feet during the conference at every mention of his name). ... For three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, the stormy applause, rising to an ovation, continued. But palms were getting sore and raised arms were already aching. And the older people were panting from exhaustion. It was becoming insufferably silly even to those who really adored Stalin.
However, who would dare to be the first to stop? … After all, NKVD men were standing in the hall applauding and watching to see who would quit first! And in the obscure, small hall, unknown to the leader, the applause went on – six, seven, eight minutes! They were done for! Their goose was cooked! They couldn’t stop now till they collapsed with heart attacks! At the rear of the hall, which was crowded, they could of course cheat a bit, clap less frequently, less vigorously, not so eagerly – but up there with the presidium where everyone could see them?
The director of the local paper factory, an independent and strong-minded man, stood with the presidium. Aware of all the falsity and all the impossibility of the situation, he still kept on applauding! Nine minutes! Ten! In anguish he watched the secretary of the District Party Committee, but the latter dared not stop. Insanity! To the last man! With make-believe enthusiasm on their faces, looking at each other with faint hope, the district leaders were just going to go on and on applauding till they fell where they stood, till they were carried out of the hall on stretchers! And even then those who were left would not falter…
Then, after eleven minutes, the director of the paper factory assumed a businesslike expression and sat down in his seat. And, oh, a miracle took place! Where had the universal, uninhibited, indescribable enthusiasm gone? To a man, everyone else stopped dead and sat down. They had been saved!
The squirrel had been smart enough to jump off his revolving wheel. That, however, was how they discovered who the independent people were. And that was how they went about eliminating them. That same night the factory director was arrested. They easily pasted ten years on him on the pretext of something quite different. But after he had signed Form 206, the final document of the interrogation, his interrogator reminded him:
“Don’t ever be the first to stop applauding.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taejong_of_Joseon ((13 June 1367 — 30 May 1422)
These names are spelled differently than what you used to see. Joseon is robably Chosun and Gaeseong is probably the city of Kaisong. I recall also I think there was a Korean king who destroyed all the history books, and one who invented the Korean alphabet.
In 1392 he helped his father to overthrow Goryeo and establish a new dynasty, Joseon. He expected to be appointed as the successor to the throne for he contributed most to the founding of Joseon, but his father, Taejo, and prime minister Jeong Do-jeon favored Taejo's eighth son and Yi Bangwon's half-brother (second son of Queen Sindeok), Yi Bangseok, as the crown prince.
This conflict arose chiefly because Jeong Dojeon, who shaped and laid down ideological, institutional and legal foundations of the new dynasty more than anyone else, saw Joseon as a kingdom led by ministers appointed by the king while Yi Bangwon wanted to establish the absolute monarchy ruled directly by the king.
Both sides were well aware of each other's great animosity and were getting ready to strike first. After the sudden death of Queen Sindeok, and while King Taejo was still in mourning for his second wife, Yi Bang-won struck first by raiding the palace and killed Jeong Do-jeon and his supporters, as well as Queen Sindeok's two sons including the crown prince in 1398. This incident became known as the First Strife of Princes.
Aghast at the fact that his sons were willing to kill each other for the crown, and psychologically exhausted from the death of his second wife, King Taejo abdicated and immediately crowned his second son Yi Bang-gwa, or King Jeongjong, as the new ruler. One of King Jeongjong's first acts as monarch was to revert the capital to Gaeseong, where he is believed to have been considerably more comfortable.
Yet Yi Bangwon retained real power and was soon in conflict with his disgruntled older brother Yi Bang-gan, who also yearned for power. In 1400, General Bak Po, who was disappointed by Yi Bangwon for not rewarding him enough for his action in the First Strife of Princes, allied with Bangwon's older brother Yi Bang-gan (Prince Hoean) and rebelled against him in what came to be known as the Second Strife of Princes. Yi Bangwon successfully defeated his brother's forces, then executed Bak Po and sent Yi Bang-gan into exile.
King Jeongjong, who was afraid of his powerful brother, named Yi Bangwon as crown prince and abdicated in the same year. Yi Bangwon assumed the throne of Joseon at long last as King Taejong, the third king of Joseon
I see the Korean alphabet was created during the Joseon Dynasty in 1443 by King Sejong the Great. (the son of the one who killed some of his brothers)
With Trump one can't be 100% certain but perhaps Trump is giving Fat Boy a face saving out to de-escalate the situation.
Bill, R.O.T: Damn, I love that book!!!
There were Korean monarchs until Japan invaded Korea in 1894.
It is a mischaracterization to call this "flattery". Trump is simply trying to be realistic about what we are facing. A lot of people like to mock Kim as a buffoonish "fat boy" (I plead guilty). But dealing with him will be neither trivial nor easy.
@Bill, Republic of Texas.
Thanks for posting that Solzhenitsyn excerpt. I remember the story but had forgotten where I read it.
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