Marco Rubio, the possible future head of American diplomacy, designated by President-elect Donald Trump, labels Kim Jong Un as a "dictator", an apparent break with the position of the billionaire who developed a close relationship with the North Korean leader during his first term, AFP reports. Rubio said Wednesday, during his confirmation hearings for Secretary of State, that the United States is making every effort to avoid a crisis with South Korea. "You have a dictator almost 40 years old who has to figure out how to maintain his power for the rest of his life," Marco Rubio told the Senate committee. "He sees nuclear weapons as his insurance policy to stay in power, and this is so important to him that no sanctions have deterred him from developing this" nuclear capability, he added.
Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un have met three times, the first time at a historic summit in June 2018 in Singapore, notes AFP, quoted by News.ro. But negotiations towards North Korea's nuclear disarmament never really progressed after the fiasco of the second summit in February 2019 in Hanoi. Marco Rubio welcomed Donald Trump's approach on Wednesday, but added that he is among the "very skeptical people" of his strategy. "In the end, he (Trump) did not reach a lasting agreement. But he managed (...) to stop the missile tests. That did not stop the development of the program, but at least it calmed the situation," he added. The first sitting US president to meet with a member of the Kim dynasty, Donald Trump, maintained a well-known correspondence with the North Korean dictator. Kim "tells me everything. He told me everything," the billionaire told investigative journalist Bob Woodward, who quoted him in his 2020 book "Rage."
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