President Trump on Tuesday revived the “Rocket Man” nickname he has used to refer to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while discussing relations with Pyongyang.
When asked in London why North Korea has continued its nuclear program, Trump told reporters that “he definitely likes sending up rockets, doesn’t he,” referring to Kim.
{mosads}“That’s why I call him Rocket Man,” Trump said.
He added: “I have confidence in him. I like him, he likes me, we have a good relationship. … We’ll see what happens. It may work out, it may not.”
“If I weren’t president, you’d be in a war right now in Asia, and who knows where that leads,” he continued.
Trump famously called the North Korean leader “Rocket Man” in 2017, when he said Kim was on a “suicide mission for himself and for his regime” as nuclear tensions between the two nations ran high.
Kim earlier in 2019 set an end-of-the-year deadline for an agreement on denuclearization. After months of stalled nuclear talks, North Korea said in November that the U.S. had offered to resume negotiations.
Negotiations first fell apart in February in Vietnam after the U.S. refused to lift sanctions for North Korea to partially relinquish its nuclear weapons. Talks also failed in October after North Korea called the U.S. proposals for negotiations “sickening.”
Trump is currently in London for a meeting of NATO leaders.