A North Korean state media outlet has backed Donald Trump for the US presidency, claiming the most likely Republican candidate was “wise” and “far-sighted” and could realise the North’s “Yankee Go Home” dream.
“The president that US citizens should vote for is not that dull Hillary — who claimed to adapt the Iranian model to resolve nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula — but Trump, who spoke of holding direct conversation with North Korea,” ran an editorial in the state publication DPRK Today by Han Yong-mook, who described himself as a Chinese North Korean scholar.
Mr Trump said he was ready to talk to North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un to resolve tension on the Korean peninsula, which ratcheted up significantly since North Korea stage its fourth nuclear test in January and followed this up with a string of ballistic missile tests.
The United Nations imposed wide-ranging sanctions on North Korea, which were backed by the North’s only ally in the region, China.
Mr Trump has indicated he would withdraw US military forces from South Korea unless Seoul comes up with more cash to pay for the US soldiers guarding the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that marks the buffer between North and South since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
“Yes do it, now. Who knew that the slogan ‘Yankee Go Home’ would come true like this? The day when the ‘Yankee Go Home’’ slogan becomes real would be the day of Korean unification,” the editorial said.
No peace treaty was ever signed after the Korean War and the DMZ is the world’s most militarised border, with two million North Korean, US and South Korean troops in an tense standoff across the 38th parallel of the Korean Peninsula.
“In my personal opinion, there are many positive aspects to the Trump’s ‘inflammatory policies’,” Mr Han wrote.
“Trump said he will not get involved in the war between the South and the North – is this not fortunate from North Koreans’ perspective?”
John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy In Focus told the NK News website that Mr Trump was the “Dennis Rodman of American politics”, referring to the eccentric former basketball champion who has made numerous trips to North Korea.
“At the moment he’s also an outsider. But Pyongyang is hoping that either he’ll be elected (and follows through on his pledges) or that his pronouncements will change the political game in the United States and influence how the Democratic Party and mainstream Republicans view Korean issues,” Mr Feffer said.
North Korea has sent an emissary to Beijing to brief Chinese leaders on recent political developments amid a downturn in relations between the two ideological allies formerly “as close as lips and teeth” who have become estranged over Pyongyang’s nuclear arms programme.
