Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un meet in Singapore in 2018. North Korea said a year later that planned US-South Korean military drills would be halt nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington. Evan Vucci/AP
President Trump hinted on Wednesday that his friendly relationship with North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un may owe a lot to the country’s strong nuclear capabilities.
“He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. Should have never allowed it to happen,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “But he’s got them. I get along with him very well…As long as we have a smart president, he’s gonna be fine.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump said that having “a good relationship” with Kim makes nearby countries like South Korea and Japan safer—which may sound reasonable in itself. But by “good relationship,” Trump seemed to mean building a collaborative connection solely with Kim: “I didn’t like the fact that we’re doing these massive military exercises really against North Korea when I’m friendly with him.”
Trump’s remarks came three days after he announced that he ordered the Pentagon to cut back on joint military training with South Korea, citing President Lee Jae Myung’s refusal to join his war against Iran.
On Monday, Trump further justified the cuts to joint military efforts—which led Lee to call for South Korea to retake full control of its military operations from the US—by saying that the drills “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, a country that “has been unthreatening and respectful” during his presidency. Trump also said he plans to meet with Kim later this year.
Trump’s explanation sends a blunt message to Iran: If the country already had nuclear weapons, it may have had a paradoxically friendlier relationship with Trump—and been able to avoid an ongoing war that has killed thousands of civilians, which the Trump administration has justfied on the basis of halting Iran’s nuclear development. As Iranian historian Behrooz Ghamari told me earlier this year, Iran’s nuclear program is tied to its pursuit of greater sovereignty, following several decades of intervention in its economy and politics by countries like the US and Britain.
To any country watching Trump’s words, it now looks like one of the only paths to prevent conflict with the current administration is to militarize or even go nuclear—a warning South Korea may also be taking to heart.