Trump the right choice: North Korea

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts during a speech on Veteran affairs in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. PHOTO: EPA

SEOUL • North Korea has backed presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, with a propaganda website praising him as "a prescient presidential candidate" who could liberate Americans living under daily fear of nuclear attack by the North.

A column carried on Tuesday by DPRK Today, one of the reclusive state's mouthpieces, called Mr Trump a "wise politician" and the right choice for US voters.

It described his likely Democratic opponent, Mrs Hillary Clinton, as "thick-headed Hillary" over her proposal to apply the Iran model of wide sanctions to resolve the nuclear weapons issue on the Korean peninsula. Mr Trump has said he would be prepared to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

DPRK Today also said Mr Trump's suggestion, that the US should pull its troops from South Korea until Seoul pays more, was the way to achieve Korean unification. "It turns out that Trump is not the rough-talking, screwy, ignorant candidate they say he is, but is actually a wise politician and a prescient presidential candidate," said the column, written by a China-based Korean scholar identified as Han Yong Muk.

It said resolving issues through "negotiations and not war" was the best option for the US, which it said is "living every minute and second on pins and needles in fear of a nuclear strike" by North Korea.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 02, 2016, with the headline Trump the right choice: North Korea. Subscribe