The 2016 presidential campaign keeps getting weirder by the minute.
It seems Donald J. Trump is getting praise from an unusual source, with North Korea’s controlled media lending its support of the billionaire businessman.
The presumptive Republican nominee has been making North Korean headlines following the release of an opinion piece dubbing him as “wise” and labeling Hillary Clinton as “dull.”
“In my personal opinion, there are many positive aspects to Trump’s ‘inflammatory policies’,” wrote Han Yong Mook, who claims to be a Chinese North Korean scholar. “Trump said ‘he will not get involved in the war between the South and the North,’ isn’t this fortunate from North Koreans’ perspective?”
This support, however, comes as no surprise following Trump’s proposal in March that South Korea should obtain nuclear bombs and deter North Korea without the United States’ interference, further arguing South Korea and Japan having their own weapons would reduce pressure on the US to jump into action should North Korea act aggressively.
“There’ll be a point at which we’re just not going to be able to do it anymore. Now, does that mean nuclear? It could mean nuclear,” said Trump.
“Admittedly it is not exactly Pyongyang speaking, or at least not the DPRK government in an official capacity,” says Aidan Foster-Carter of the University of Leeds. “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.”
