{"id":102533,"date":"2018-04-24T19:48:38","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T19:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/04\/24\/in-big-shift-trump-assesses-kim-jong-un-as-very-honorable\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:19:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:19:35","slug":"in-big-shift-trump-assesses-kim-jong-un-as-very-honorable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/24\/in-big-shift-trump-assesses-kim-jong-un-as-very-honorable\/","title":{"rendered":"In big shift, Trump assesses Kim Jong Un as \u2018very honorable\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Kim Jong Un wants a historic, high-stakes meeting as soon as possible and suggested the North Korean dictator has been \u201cvery open\u201d and \u201cvery honorable,\u201d a sharply different assessment of a leader he once denounced as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/01\/17\/north-korea-scoffs-at-trumps-nuclear-button-tweet\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Little Rocket Man<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The United States and North Korea have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/24\/us-wont-ease-sanctions-without-action-by-north-korea-on-nukes\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">negotiating a summit<\/a> between Trump and Kim to be held in May or June to broker a deal on Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear program. Trump, who has struck a decidedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/22\/trump-says-north-korea-agreed-to-denuclearize-it-hasnt\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">optimistic tone<\/a> on the situation in recent days, said Tuesday that the United States and North Korea were having \u201cgood discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible. We think that\u2019s a great thing for the world,\u201d Trump said at the White House alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. \u201cKim Jong Un, he really has been very open and I think very honorable from everything we\u2019re seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/18\/us-forces-in-korea-arent-packing-up-just-yet-heres-why\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-927755548.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US forces in Korea aren\u2019t packing up just yet. Here\u2019s why.<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Any peace deal with North Korea is unlikely to have an immediate impact on the 23,000 U.S. troops deployed on the peninsula.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump cautioned that North Korea had not followed through on previous promises, but credited tough steps from his administration \u2014 including sanctions and organizing pressure from international allies \u2014 for having forced Pyongyang to hold talks. And he again suggested that he would \u201cleave the table\u201d if the negotiations were not productive or if North Korea was not operating in good faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ll see where that all goes,\u201d the president said. \u201cMaybe it will be wonderful or maybe it won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump\u2019s comments came days after a flurry of moves from North Korea that the White House was anxious to promote as signs that its coercion campaign was working. On Saturday, North Korea announced it will close its nuclear testing facility and suspend nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests \u2014 a move welcomed by Trump as \u201cbig progress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the North stopped short of suggesting it will give up its nuclear weapons \u2014 as Trump suggested in a weekend tweet \u2014 or scale back its production of missiles and their related components. When pressed Tuesday on what he meant by the goal of \u201cdenuclearization,\u201d Trump said, \u201cIt means they get rid of their nukes. Very simple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt would be easy for me to make a simple deal and declare victory. I don\u2019t want to do that,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/22\/road-to-north-koreas-denuclearization-is-littered-with-failure\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"176\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18111355411423.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Road to North Korea\u2019s denuclearization is littered with failure<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">While Seoul and Washington welcomed Pyongyang\u2019s declaration on Saturday to suspend further intercontinental ballistic missile tests and shut down its nuclear test site, the past is littered with failure.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This week, U.S.-allied South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim will hold a summit in the Demilitarized Zone between the Koreas that could lay the ground for Trump\u2019s planned meeting with the North Korean dictator. The leaders of the U.S. and North Korea have never met during six decades of hostility since the Korean War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The exact date and location of the possible summit has not been determined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As diplomacy gathered pace, White House officials and congressional aides said the Trump administration was considering nominating Adm. Harry Harris, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, as ambassador to South Korea. That key position has been vacant since Trump took office 15 months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It would entail a shuffle in the administration\u2019s plans for key diplomatic assignments. Harris has already been nominated to be ambassador to Australia. His Senate confirmation hearing for the Australia position had been due to take place Tuesday but was postponed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the congressional aides said both the State Department and governments in both Australia and South Korea were informed that the administration is looking at a switch of postings for Harris, although nothing has been made official yet. The aide and other officials requested anonymity to discuss the plans as they were not authorized to discuss them.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/24\/ahead-of-summits-us-tones-down-war-games-with-south-korea\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3251072.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Ahead of summits, US tones down war games with South Korea<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">This year, the exercises have been postponed, scaled back, probably shortened and certainly toned down. They have not, however, been canceled. Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who is Trump\u2019s choice for secretary of state, told his own confirmation hearing this month that the vacancy in Seoul needed \u201cimmediate attention.\u201d The man earlier tipped for the post, Korea expert Victor Cha, was passed over in January. He later voiced concern the administration was considering military action against North Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Harris has spent nearly 40 years in uniform and has a reputation as a straight talker. In testimony last month before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Harris said that the U.S. could not be \u201coverly optimistic\u201d about outcomes for the planned Trump-Kim summit. \u201cWe have to go into this, eyes wide open,\u201d he told lawmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year, the U.S. spearheaded through the U.N. Security Council the toughest international sanctions yet against North Korea in response to three long-range missile launches and its most powerful nuclear test explosion yet. The Trump administration supplemented those restrictions with unilateral U.S. sanctions against firms that had conducted illicit trade with the North.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year, Kim has pivoted from confrontation to diplomacy and, according to South Korea and China, has expressed a commitment to denuclearization. There is still uncertainty about what he seeks in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump\u2019s praise for Kim on Tuesday stood in stark contrast to his previous bellicose rhetoric toward the North Korean leader. Beyond dubbing him \u201cLittle Rocket Man\u201d from the rostrum of the United Nations last fall, Trump has threatened to deliver \u201cfire and fury\u201d upon North Korea and taunted Kim on Twitter that his own nuclear \u201cbutton\u201d was larger than the one in Pyongyang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Later Tuesday, Trump sidestepped a question as to why he would use the word \u201chonorable\u201d to describe Kim, who has been accused of starving his own people, executing his political opponents and ordering the killing of a member of his own family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Ken Thomas and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Kim Jong Un wants a historic, high-stakes meeting as soon as possible and suggested the North Korean dictator has been \u201cvery open\u201d and \u201cvery honorable,\u201d a sharply different assessment of a leader he once denounced as \u201cLittle Rocket Man.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":97687,"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":10,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"4":{"categories":["flashpoints","pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"flashpoints"},"5":{"categories":["flashpoints","pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"flashpoints"},"6":{"categories":["flashpoints","pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"flashpoints"},"7":{"categories":["flashpoints","pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"flashpoints"},"8":{"categories":["leadership","management","home","daily-brief","newsletters"],"primary_category":"leadership"}}},"categories":[10,15,86],"tags":[],"coauthors":[807,307],"class_list":["post-102533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"LTWMXE4E2FAGRPXECQYFQHYKPA","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/24\/in-big-shift-trump-assesses-kim-jong-un-as-very-honorable\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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content=\"President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Kim Jong Un wants a historic, high-stakes meeting as soon as possible and suggested the North Korean dictator has been \u201cvery open\u201d and \u201cvery honorable,\u201d a sharply different assessment of a leader he once denounced as \u201cLittle Rocket Man.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/24\/in-big-shift-trump-assesses-kim-jong-un-as-very-honorable\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Military Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-24T19:48:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T11:19:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jonathan Lemire, The Associated Press, Matthew Pennington, The Associated Press\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta 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