An editorial in North Korea's state-run media on Tuesday offered high praise for presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Trump is a “wise politician” and “far-sighted presidential candidate,” the Korean-language article in DPRK Today argues.
The editorial, attributed to Chinese North Korean scholar Han Yong-mook, is not official government policy. Yet it likely reflects the authoritarian regime's thinking, experts told NK News.
"There are many positive aspects to Trump’s ‘inflammatory policies,’" the article says, listing two in particular: Trump's offer to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and his threat to remove U.S. forces from South Korea, which is still technically at war with the North.
"Yes, do it now," the editorial urged Trump, reflecting Pyongyang's long-held demand the U.S. troops leave the Korean peninsula. "Who knew that the slogan ‘Yankee Go Home’ would come true like this?"
The editorial went on to provide some advice for U.S. voters: "The president that U.S. citizens must vote for is not that dull Hillary [Clinton] ... but Trump, who spoke of holding direct conversations with North Korea."
The New York real estate developer's statements on foreign affairs have prompted alarm and disbelief in Washington and in capitals around the world. Since Trump reached the number of delegates necessary to secure the Republican nomination last week, alarm has turned to panic.
In March, Trump's overture to the North Korean leader brought condemnation from Democratic and Republican officials, who called his remarks naive and dangerous. "The last thing you want to do is empower this guy in North Korea," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told CNN. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said Trump's comments on North Korea and other foreign policy missives were evidence he is "not qualified” to be president.
Even North Korea was not particularly impressed with Trump's offer. Earlier this month, a North Korean diplomat indicated the country was not taking the business mogul's proposal seriously.
North Korea's escalating nuclear ambitions in the past decade have prompted international concern and sanctions. At a meeting of world leaders in Japan last week, President Barack Obama highlighted Pyongyang's desire for nuclear weapons as a major threat to world security. On Tuesday, North Korean leaders again defied international condemnation to launch another missile test, which ultimately failed, South Korean officials said.
The isolated regime exercises brutal, totalitarian rule over the country's population. Over 1 million North Koreans are trapped in slavery, the Global Slavery Index estimated on Tuesday.
Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.