Former President Donald Trump offered North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un a flight on Air Force One after the world leaders met for a summit in Vietnam in 2019. Kim declined the invitation.
Details about Trump’s relationship with the North Korean leader were shared to the public after BBC aired the docu-series, Trump Takes On The World.
Trump and Kim met in Hanoi, Vietnam in February 2019 for their second historic summit to negotiate North Korea’s nuclear program.
The summit ended abruptly where the leaders weren’t able to agree on what Kim was willing to sacrifice in exchange for sanctions relief. “Sometimes you just have to walk,” Trump told reporters at the time.
“President Trump offered Kim a lift home on Air Force One,” revealed Matthew Pottinger, top Asia expert on Trump’s National Security Council, in the documentary.
“The president knew that Kim had arrived on a multi-day train ride through China into Hanoi and the president said, ‘I can get you home in two hours if you want.’ Kim declined,” Pottinger added that this exchange astounded himself and other officials.
“Trump thought he had a new best friend,” said John Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Advisor.
Bolton, also appearing in the docu-series, described another troubling instance when Trump agreeed to Kim’s request to remove joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea.
“Kim Jong-Un, as he had many times in the past, complained about the big joint exercises between South Korea and American forces, which had been going on the Korean Peninsula for about 60 years plus,” Bolton said. “Trump, out of nowhere said, ‘I’m going to cancel the war games [as he called them]. There’s no need for them, they’re expensive and it will make you happy’.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” Bolton continued. “I were sitting there in the room with Trump and we weren’t consulted.”
