Trump calls Kim a friend and plays down North Korea’s nuclear arsenal
The US president blamed previous administrations for Pyongyang’s nuclear capability and said he planned to meet Kim Jong Un before year’s end. North Korea has not formally committed to talks.
US President Donald Trump called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “a friend” and said he would be “fine” while Trump was in office, playing down concerns about Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.
Speaking in Washington after being asked why North Korea could have nuclear weapons while Iran could not, Trump blamed previous US administrations, saying they “could have stopped him”. He described North Korea’s nuclear capacity as “pretty large” but “not like us”.
The reported estimates of North Korea’s warheads differ. South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back put the figure at 80 to 120 last week, while Trump recently said Pyongyang had 57. The supplied report does not establish an independently verified count.
Trump has said he plans to hold in-person talks with Kim before the end of the year, but North Korea has not formally committed. The two leaders held summits in 2018 and 2019; diplomacy later broke down over US demands that Pyongyang abandon its nuclear weapons.
Since then, Kim has expanded North Korea’s nuclear-capable missile arsenal and strengthened ties with Russia and China, according to Al Jazeera.
