WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump downplayed abuses by Kim Jong Un’s regime in an interview following his summit with the North Korean leader, saying that other countries had also done “bad things.”
“A lot of other people (have) done some really bad things. I mean, I could go through a lot of nations where a lotta bad things were done,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News.
He praised Kim as “a very smart guy” and “a great negotiator,” saying that “I think we understand each other.”
According to Trump’s own State Department, Kim’s regime holds between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners in forced labor camps, facing torture and forced starvation.
As well as abuses at home, Kim is also suspected of ordering the assassination of his brother at a Malaysian airport last year.
Trump and Kim met in Singapore on Tuesday — an unprecedented encounter that saw the leader of the world’s most powerful democracy shake hands with the third generation scion of a dynastic dictatorship, standing as equals in front of their nations’ flags.
Critics have charged the summit legitimized Kim and said the summit was more about headlines than substantive progress.
Trump also had kind words for Chinese President Xi Jinping in the interview, describing him as “an incredible guy” and noting that he is “essentially president for life. That’s pretty good.”
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Trump downplays abuses by Kim Jong Un’s regime
Trump downplays abuses by Kim Jong Un’s regime
- According to Trump’s own State Department, Kim’s regime holds between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners in forced labor camps, facing torture and forced starvation.
Another 131 migrants rescued off southern Crete
ATHENS: The Greek coast guard Saturday rescued 131 would be migrants off Crete, bringing the number of people brought out of the sea in the area over the past five days to 840, a police spokesperson said.
The migrants rescued Saturday morning were aboard a fishing boat some 14 nautical miles south of Gavdos, a small island south of Crete.
The passengers, whose nationality was not revealed, were all taken to Gavdos.
Many people attempting to reach Crete from Libya drown during the risky crossing.
In early December, 17 people — mostly Sudanese or Egyptian — were found dead after their boat sank off the coast of Crete, and 15 others were reported missing. Only two people survived.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 16,770 people trying to get to Europe have arrived in Crete since the beginning of the year, more than on any other Greek island.
In July, the conservative government suspended the processing of asylum applications for three months, particularly those of people arriving from Libya, saying the measure as “absolutely necessary” in the face of the increasing flow of migrants.
The migrants rescued Saturday morning were aboard a fishing boat some 14 nautical miles south of Gavdos, a small island south of Crete.
The passengers, whose nationality was not revealed, were all taken to Gavdos.
Many people attempting to reach Crete from Libya drown during the risky crossing.
In early December, 17 people — mostly Sudanese or Egyptian — were found dead after their boat sank off the coast of Crete, and 15 others were reported missing. Only two people survived.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 16,770 people trying to get to Europe have arrived in Crete since the beginning of the year, more than on any other Greek island.
In July, the conservative government suspended the processing of asylum applications for three months, particularly those of people arriving from Libya, saying the measure as “absolutely necessary” in the face of the increasing flow of migrants.
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