HUMAN RIGHTS/NORTH KOREA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Friday [6-15-18] defended his warm praise of Kim Jong Un, saying his newfound affinity for the North Korean dictator was making Americans safer. At the same time, Trump expressed esteem for the forced deference North Koreans show for their leader and joked he wished ‘my people’ would do the same. Asked why he’s warmed to Kim, Trump insisted he was defusing a nuclear standoff…The remarks, which came three days after Trump met Kim in Singapore for an unprecedented and friendly summit, are likely to do little to allay concerns that Trump has shown too much regard for a brutal despot, one responsible for the death of at least one American and of countless North Koreans…He’s also spoken with barely contained awe about the displays of reverence North Koreans are obligated to show toward their supreme leader…North Korea has perpetuated human rights abuses for decades, according to watchdog agencies, human rights groups and the US government. In his first five years in power, Kim has ordered 340 people to be executed, about 140 were senior officers in the country’s government and military, according to a 2016 report from the Institute for National Security Strategy, a South Korean think tank. In June 2016, a top education official was executed by firing squad after he exercised a ‘bad attitude’ at the country’s Supreme People’s Assembly. Kim’s defense minister was executed in May 2015 with an anti-aircraft gun at a Pyongyang military school, before an audience.”
-Veronica Stracqualursi and Kevin Liptak, “Trump says he wants ‘my people’ to ‘sit up at attention’ like North Koreans, later says he’s ‘kidding’,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, June 15, 2018 11:28 am