Go to contents

Trump says he is up for a hamburger summit with Kim Jong Un

Trump says he is up for a hamburger summit with Kim Jong Un

Posted June. 17, 2016 07:20,   

Updated June. 17, 2016 07:35

한국어
Presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump said he would have talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong un over a hamburger should he take office.

“I wouldn’t go there…If he came here, I’d accept him…We should be eating a hamburger on a conference table, and we should make better deals with China and others…,” the prospective Republican presidential candidate told his supporters at a rally held in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday. His remarks are aimed to rebut the point that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made that “(he) should focus more on sanctioning North Korea,” which was her response to Mr. Trump’s interview with Reuters last month in which he said he would speak with the North Korean dictator if he became president.

Trump made a verbose criticism about costly state dinners. “I wouldn't give him a state dinner for China and all other people that rip off when we give them these big state dinners," argued the Republican presidential hopeful. "We give them state dinners like you’ve never seen. We shouldn’t have such costly state dinners at all. We should be eating a hamburger on a conference table.” Trump, who enjoys hamburger, was seen having McDonalds’ hamburgers and French fries on his private jet during the primaries.

Bob Woodward (73), the legendary journalist of the Washington Post (WP) who helped uncover the Watergate scandal that eventually brought down President Richard Nixon, strongly denounced Trump’s vindictive ban on WP reporters. In an interview with the NBC on Tuesday, Woodward said, “The Nixon White House did not formally pull press credentials of the Post but did begin excluding the Post from covering social events at the White House.” Trump said Monday that he was revoking the press credentials of the Washington Post based on its inaccurate coverage and reporting of the Trump campaign.

In a response to the criticism from the White House reporters that all presidential nominees must respect the role of media, Trump told CNN on Wednesday that while he respects the role of media, if they refuse to accept my request to revise their false reports, they will be banned visiting my campaigns.”

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee backed down a little, saying that campaign coverage and the White House are two very different things and if he becomes president, he would not do such a thing as banning entrance of reporters. With associate editor Bob Woodward at the helm, the Washington Post has built an army of 20 reporters to dig into everything about Donald Trump’s life.



워싱턴=이승헌 특파원ddr@donga.com