President Trump endorsed North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s leadership, weeks ahead of their second summit in Vietnam.
Trump, who previously dubbed Kim “Rocket Man” for the country’s efforts to obtain nuclear weapons, offered a new description of the country and its leader Friday.
“North Korea will become a different kind of Rocket – an Economic one!” Trump wrote, also saying the hermit kingdom has the ability to become “a great Economic Powerhouse” under Kim.
North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, will become a great Economic Powerhouse. He may surprise some but he won’t surprise me, because I have gotten to know him & fully understand how capable he is. North Korea will become a different kind of Rocket – an Economic one!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2019
It’s a drastic turn from his State of the Union address last year, in which Trump condemned the country’s human rights abuses.
“No regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship of North Korea,” Trump said at the time.
In his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Trump claimed the U.S. would be at war with North Korea if he had not been elected president, noting that his relationship with Kim is “a good one.”
Trump and Kim are scheduled to meet in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 27-28. The two met for the first time in Singapore in June.
