Smart cookie Kim Jong Un

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un solidified his position as the country’s leader at the seventh Congress of Workers’ Party in May last year. Kim gained an additional title “Chairman of the Workers’ Party” after the congress. It granted him authority equivalent to his grandfather, Kim Il Sung. He has a total of nine titles including the chairman of the party’s central military committee, the leader of the Korean People’s Army and the No.1 chairman of the National Defense Commission. At the Congress, his father, Kim Jong Il, was called the “Excellent Leader” and Kim Il Sung the “Great Leader.” The titles are something that no one can covet except the royal family.

Kim Jong Un’s authority disappears outside of North Korea. In China, he has long been called “Kim Fatty the Third.” If you search this word in Chinese websites, a phrase pops up: “We do not open it temporarily due to the relevant laws and regulations.” Some say that North Korea requested a ban on the search, Beijing does not officially admit the ban. When he was studying in Switzerland, he was called “Dim Jong Un.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday (local time) Kim Jong Un is a “pretty smart cookie.” A “cookie” is a nickname used when an old man calls a younger person. To the 71-year-old president, the 33-year-old North Korean might seem as a “young friend.” When John Kirby, former President Barack Obama’s former spokesman, knocked him off the pedestal, referring him as a “young man.”

Trump’s generous assessment of Kim is quite unusual. During his presidential election last year, he criticized Kim saying he is a “maniac” or a “bad dude.” The change in the way of calling Kim – from negative to positive -- might be Trump’s trick. Aside from such trick, the drastic shift in the way of referring to a person is not becoming to a U.S. president. Not to mention North Korea which called former President Barack Obama, “a wicked black monkey.”