Trump praises ‘unlimited potential’ of Kim’s Korea with veiled threat not to ‘disappoint’ US

US President Donald Trump has dismissed North Korea’s latest missile tests, saying Pyongyang is too smart to disappoint its “friend” the US. North Korea’s wellbeing, Trump implied, is solely at his mercy.

“Chairman Kim does not want to disappoint me with a violation of trust, there is far too much for North Korea to gain,” Trump tweeted on Friday. While North Korea’s three short-range missile tests over the past few days “may be a United Nations violation,” he explained in a series of subtly menacing posts that the launches hadn’t broken any agreement with the US – because Kim would never be so foolish as to break a deal with the US.

Kim “has a great and beautiful vision for his country,” Trump continued, but “only the United States, with me as President, can make that vision come true.” Kim was “far too smart” not to “do the right thing,” lest he “disappoint his friend, President Trump.”

The “that’s an awfully nice country you’ve got there, would be a shame if something happened to it” subtext appeared lost on most of the Twitter crowd, who rushed to slam Trump for “literally tweeting support for the agenda of a brutal dictator.” “You’re not his friend. He’s using you for publicity,” one user tweeted, suggesting Trump was only playing nice with Kim in the hope of securing a Nobel Peace Prize “because Obama got one.”

Several brought up Otto Warmbier, the American who suffered a mysterious injury while in North Korean custody and died after returning to the US, while others reminded the president that while he “sits fat and happy in Washington” dismissing the missile tests, “Japan and South Korea are nervous.” Even the chief of the Council on Foreign Relations weighed in to chide Trump for “getting North Korea wrong.” 

North Korea has fired several missiles in the past few weeks, causing alarm in some quarters even as Trump insists the “very standard, short-range devices” pose no threat to the US or its interests. While Kim had halted missile tests for two years as negotiations with the Trump administration appeared to be moving forward, those talks stalled in February when the US insisted on complete denuclearization before any sanctions relief would be possible.

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