The ultimate endorsement: North Korea is backing Trump for President
Our nuclear future will be safe
Is this good? Is this bad? We've kind of lost the ability to work out what anything means any more.
North Korean state media has come out in support of the likely Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump, describing him as a 'wise politician' who would be good for the country.
Supportive comments appeared in an editorial in DPRK Today, a state-owned media outlet, written by 'Chinese North Korean scholar' Han Yong-mook outlining the belief that, if elected, Trump might withdraw US troops from South Korea, aiding the North in their long-term aim of unifying the country.
The article described him as a “far-sighted presidential candidate” with Yong-mook writing, “In my personal opinion, there are many positive aspects to the Trump’s ‘inflammatory policies’...Trump said ‘he will not get involved in the war between the South and the North,’ isn’t this fortunate from North Koreans’ perspective?"
Referring to previous Trump comments when he said he could withdraw the US military from Seoul if they fail to increase their payment for defence costs, he wrote “Yes do it, now … Who knew that the slogan ‘Yankee Go Home’ would come true like this? The day when the ‘Yankee Go Home’ slogan becomes real would be the day of Korean Unification.”
“The president that US citizens must vote for is not that dull Hillary – who claimed to adapt the Iranian model to resolve nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula – but Trump, who spoke of holding direct conversation with North Korea.”
Trump told CNN in January, "South Korea is a money machine. They pay us peanuts. I have many friends from South Korea. ... But South Korea should pay us and pay us very substantially for protecting them."
Aidan Foster-Carter of the University of Leeds told NK News, “Admittedly it is not exactly Pyongyang speaking, or at least not the DPRK government in an official capacity. But it is certainly Pyongyang flying a kite, or testing the waters. For the rest of us, this is a timely reminder - if it were needed - of just how completely Trump plans to tear up established U.S. policy in the region; and what an irresponsible, unthinking menace the man is.”
Don't hold back Aidan, say what you really think.
So on the one hand, North Korea would be happy if Trump came to power - which, given the fact that it may develop nuclear weapons sooner rather than later, is perhaps a good thing. But on the other - well, a crazy dictatorship which oppresses and starves its own people is saying they like Trump - which suggests the rest of us probably shouldn't.