Donald Trump appeared to suggest that he was still in contact with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and that the North Korean dictator had criticised the presidency of Joe Biden with him.
The former president, addressing supporters in New Hampshire, said Mr Kim was “getting very anxious again” and had called Mr Biden “a very bad word”.
At the rally on Monday, Mr Trump spoke about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, telling those gathered that “everybody felt safe when I was president”.
“It never would have happened with Putin,” he said. “President Xi Jingping [of China] would have never done it. Kim Jong-un of North Korea has tremendous nuclear capability.
“Everybody felt safe when I was president. I got along with him. You would have had a nuclear war if Crooked Hillary was there. You would have had a nuclear war the likes of which you’ve never seen.”
In 2019, Mr Trump became the first sitting US president to step onto North Korean soil since the 1953 armistice— (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
He continued: “And by the way, he’s getting very anxious again [Mr Kim], he thinks Biden is a total… I won’t tell you the word he used but a very bad word.”
Mr Trump is known to have previously enjoyed a somewhat love-hate relationship with Mr Kim, having reportedly developed a “very good relationship” with him during his presidency.
In 2019, he became the first sitting US president to step onto North Korean soil since the 1953 armistice divided the peninsula, after having met with Mr Kim twice before.
Mr Kim also praised Mr Trump in a letter to the White House before a summit between them in Vietnam in 2019, and said he wished to negotiate only with the former president and not his envoys.
This amiability came after the two had previously exchanged harsher words, with Mr Trump once referring to Mr Kim as “little rocket man” – in reference to North Korea’s burgeoning nuclear capabilities.
