Gardner: US shouldn't be talking to 'whack job' N. Korean leader

By a2017001

Published : May 4, 2017 - 09:38 Updated : May 4, 2017 - 09:38

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump shouldn't be talking to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un until the autocratic leader meets the country's obligations and promises to give up its nuclear program, Senator Cory Gardner said Wednesday.

Gardner made the point in an interview with MSNBC, calling Kim a "whack job," after Trump said earlier this week that he would "absolutely" be willing and "honored" to meet with the North's leader if the meeting takes place under the right circumstances.

Senator Cory Gardner (Yonhap)

"I think most people agree that Kim Jong-un is a whack job. This is a guy who is willing to use and threaten not only his neighbor in South Korea that's home to 300,000 Americans, to reduce Japan to rubble. This is a crazed maniac at the helm of one of the world's nuclear regimes, trying to become a nuclear regime," Gardner said.

"We shouldn't be in the position of flattery. We shouldn't be in the position of trying to honor Kim Jong-un by bringing him into a conversation with the United States until he meets those obligations and promises," he said. (Yonhap)