Trump Wins Support From North Korea
Editor's Comment: The president of the United States should strive to make peace with all leaders across the globe, even if they disagree with how they run their nations. Yet many are astounded that Trump said he would meet with Kim Jong Un if he was president and even more shocked that he said South Korea should pay for their own security. Afterall, they can afford it with all the business they get from western nations. America is not and should not be the police force of the world. Trump is the least war mongering candidate in the presidential race.
TOKYO -- Donald Trump appears to be finding some friends in North Korea.
The presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee has been getting good press this week in the North's carefully controlled media, first in an opinion piece that praised him as "wise" and full of foresight, then Wednesday in the official mouthpiece of the ruling Worker's Party itself.
Both articles noted how his suggestions he would be willing to meet leader Kim Jong Un and wants to rethink the stationing of U.S. troops from South Korea -- and possibly withdraw them-- have created a "Trump Shock" in Seoul.
The state-run DPRK Today, in the capital of Pyongyang, started off the Trump praise Tuesday by juxtaposing the "wise" Trump with what it called "dull Hillary" - describing leading Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton by only her first name.
In the lengthy column, Trump is described as a "wise politician and presidential candidate with foresight" for his comments about the U.S. potentially withdrawing its troops from South Korea if Seoul doesn't bear the costs. It also noted his public willingness to directly talk with the North Korean leadership if he becomes president.
Clinton, the column said, is "dull" for promising to pursue an "Iran-type model" to solve nuclear issues with the North.
Trump told The New York Times in March that South Korea and Japan should pay much more for the U.S. troops based in their countries - about 28,000 in South Korea and around 50,000 in Japan. In a more recent interview with the Reuters news agency, Trump said he was willing to meet with Kim.
"I would speak to him, I would have no problem speaking to him," he said.
The removal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula and direct talks with a U.S. president dovetail nicely with objectives Pyongyang has held for years - though undoubtedly for different reasons than the American real estate magnate's.
The North wants the U.S. troops to leave because it sees them as a direct threat to the regime's security and has long wanted talks with Washington, ostensibly toward a peace treaty to end the 1950-53 Korean War, that would boost its international status and acknowledge that North Korea is a nuclear state.
"There are many 'positive aspects' to take away from Trump's 'inflammatory campaign promises,"' the writer says in the DPRK Today column, pointing out Trump's indications that Seoul should pay "100 percent" of the cost for the American troops stationed in the South and, if not, Washington should pull them out.
"Yes, go away, now!" it says. "Who knew that the 'Yankee Go Home' slogan we shouted so enthusiastically could come true so easily like this? The day that the 'Yankee Go Home' slogan becomes reality would be the day of unification."
"It turns out that Trump is not the rough-talking, screwy, ignorant candidate they say he is, but is actually a wise politician and a prescient presidential candidate," the Reuters news agency quotes the column as saying, adding thaty it was written by "a China-based Korean scholar identified as Han Yong Muk."
The Korean War that solidified the division of North and South Korea ended in an armistice, not a full peace treaty.
The DPRK Today website is considered a propaganda outlet aimed at readers outside the North, though its position within the government is not clear.
While not as colorful or overtly supportive as the DPRK Today column, the ruling party's official Rodong Sinmun editorial said the emergence of Trump is causing anxiety in South Korea because of his comments about the potential U.S. troop withdrawal.
It said the South Korean government should stop living as a servant of foreign forces and come back to the side of the Korean nation, but didn't comment directly on Trump as a candidate.
