Trump touted his ties to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un a day after he ordered the U.S. military to scale back imminent military drills with South Korea.
Asked by a reporter why Kim hasn’t responded to his request to have a conversation, Trump said, “How do you know he hasn’t responded?”
“Has he?” the journalist asked.
Trump paused before saying, “Yeah, he has.” He did not elaborate, and he went on to lament that “South Korea has been protected by us for many, many years.”
The U.S. and South Korea are close allies, and Trump announced yesterday that he was ordering the U.S. military to “substantially reduce” joint exercises with the country. He framed his relationship with Kim Jong Un as positive and pointed to South Korea’s not getting involved in the war against Iran.
Trump reiterated his criticism of South Korea’s declining to get involved in the war, saying the U.S. has “soldiers over there, guarding you from Kim Jong Un, your next-door neighbor, and you’re not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran. That’s strange.”
Later he said, “All I want is fairness.”