Pompeo repeatedly declines to blame Kim Jong Un personally for human rights abuses
Source: Washington Post
Pompeo repeatedly declines to blame Kim Jong Un personally for human rights abuses
On multiple occasions now, both Trump and Pompeo have opted to blame the regime rather than Kim personally. And on Wednesday, Pompeo got testy about it.
By Aaron Blake
March 27 at 6:27 PM
When the president you serve speaks glowingly about murderous dictators, it makes your job as his chief diplomat more difficult. Yes, sometimes you have to deal with such dictators, but you also need to avoid legitimizing them. You may be on the verge of cutting a deal, but does that mean you give the dictator a pass on humanitarian abuses — even ones directly involving the United States?
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been through this already with Jamal Khashoggi. Now he’s going through it with Otto Warmbier.
And on Wednesday, he got testy over it.
To set the backstory, Trump hasn’t just said over-the-top nice things about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un; he’s literally talked about how they "fell in love.” And the latest episode in the romance involves Trump saying recently that he didn’t think Kim knew about the situation that led to the death of Warmbier — a U.S. citizen — in a North Korean prison.
“I really believe something very bad happened to him,” Trump said, “and I don’t think that the top leadership knew about it.” He added: “I don’t believe he knew about it.”
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/27/pompeo-repeatedly-declines-blame-kim-jong-un-personally-human-rights-abuses/
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