Mr Trump and Mr Kim Jong Un had two meetings in 2019 and one in 2018.
Former United States President Donald Trump recently said that Kim Jong Un, leader of North Korea, wants him to win the 2024 Presidential race to the White House. He remarked this during the final night of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee. “But when we get back (in the White House), I get along with him,” Mr Trump said, as per a report in Newsweek.
“He’d like to see me back, too. I think he misses me if you wanna know the truth,” he added. Citing his interactions with North Korean leader and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, he positioned himself as the ideal candidate to handle geopolitical problems involving North Korea and Russia and put an end to conflicts.
He also asserted in his speech that although while in office, he “stopped the missile launches from North Korea” but the country is now “acting up again.”
During his presidency, Mr Trump made frequent references to Kim Jong Un as “Little Rocket Man,” a nickname that highlighted Kim’s ambitions for nuclear weapons and missile testing. Even while there was initially hostility and heated confrontations, Mr Trump eventually adopted a more diplomatic stance.
In 2018, following up on his ‘Rocket Man’ comment, Donald Trump reportedly sent a signed CD of Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’ song with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was on a visit to North Korea for advancing denuclearisation talks with Kim Jong-un and putting a timeline on the denuclearisation process.
Speaking on the ‘Full Send Podcast’, Mr Trump stated that the gag gift for Mr Kim worked to steer the relationship between North and South Korea in a positive direction. “I asked him, ‘Did you ever hear of the song Rocket Man?’ when I was with him. He said, ‘No, no, no,'” Mr Trump recalled. “Did you ever hear about Elton John? ‘No, no, no.’ I actually handed him the song ‘Rocket Man,’ which is a pretty good song by Elton John.” he added.
“I gave him a tape …I didn’t show that it was made in South Korea, frankly. That the record – it said ‘South Korea.’ I said, ‘Take that off.’ We had it chiseled off,” Mr Trump joked.
The CD then paved the way for his controversial 2019 meeting with the dictator. The meeting made Donald Trump the first sitting US President to cross into North Korea.
Meanwhile, in the podcast, Mr Trump also called Kim Jong-un a “smart, cunning and ruthless person”. “But I got to know him very well,” he said, as per Newsweek. “And I think we would have had a nuclear war, had Obama been able to stay or had crooked Hillary Clinton become president, you would have had a nuclear war with North Korea,” Mr Trump added.