TOKYO \u2014 Donald\u00a0Trump\u00a0appears to be finding some friends in North\u00a0Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee has been getting good press this week in North Korea’s carefully controlled media, first in an opinion piece that praised him as “wise” and full of foresight and then Wednesday in the official mouthpiece of the ruling Worker’s Party itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both articles noted how his suggestions he would be willing to meet leader Kim Jong Un and wants to rethink and possibly withdraw U.S. troops from South\u00a0Korea\u00a0have created a “Trump\u00a0Shock” in Seoul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state-run DPRK Today in Pyongyang started off the\u00a0Trump\u00a0praise on Tuesday by juxtaposing the “wise”\u00a0Trump\u00a0with what it called “dull Hillary” \u2014 describing leading Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton by only her first name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The presidential candidate who U.S. citizens should vote for is not dull Hillary, who says she would pursue an ‘Iran-type model’ to solve the Korean Peninsula’s nuclear problems, but\u00a0Trump, who said he would solve problems by directly talking with North\u00a0Korea,” the column attributed to a “China-based scholar” said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the lengthy column,\u00a0Trump\u00a0is described as a “wise politician and presidential candidate with foresight” for his comments about the U.S. potentially withdrawing its troops from South\u00a0Korea\u00a0if Seoul doesn’t bear the costs. It also noted his public willingness to directly talk with the North Korean leadership if he becomes president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u00a0told The New York Times in March that South\u00a0Korea\u00a0and Japan should pay much more for the U.S. troops based in their countries \u2014 about 28,000 in South\u00a0Korea\u00a0and around 50,000 in Japan. In a more recent interview with the Reuters news agency,\u00a0Trump\u00a0said he was willing to meet with Kim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I would speak to him, I would have no problem speaking to him,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u2014 though undoubtedly for different reasons than the American real estate magnate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The North wants 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\u00a0Korea\u00a0is a nuclear state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“There are many ‘positive aspects’ to take away from\u00a0Trump’s\u00a0‘inflammatory campaign promises,’ ” the writer said in the DPRK Today column, pointing out\u00a0Trump’s\u00a0indications 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Korean War that solidified the division of North and South\u00a0Korea\u00a0ended in an armistice, not a full peace treaty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DPRK Today website is considered to be a propaganda outlet aimed at readers outside the North, though its position within the government is not clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While not as colorful or overtly supportive as the DPRK Today column, the ruling party’s official Rodong Sinmun editorial said the emergence of\u00a0Trump\u00a0is causing anxiety in South\u00a0Korea\u00a0because of his comments about the potential U.S. troop withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a0Trump\u00a0as a candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AP writer Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Donald Trump has been getting good press this week in North Korea’s carefully controlled media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":97712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1121],"class_list":["post-59656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"FODNXC4PX5BS3HECKRWUP4STHQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/2016\/06\/01\/north-korea-s-media-praise-trump-talk-about-u-s-troops\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n