Trump: North Korean Leader ‘A Pretty Smart Cookie’

President Donald Trump is not ruling out military action against North Korea if it tests a nuclear missile. At the same time, he’s giving North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un credit for being a “pretty smart cookie.”

“What do you make of the North Korean leader?” John Dickerson, host of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” asked President Trump in an interview taped on Saturday.

“I have — I really, you know, have no comment on him. People are saying, is he sane? I have no idea,” Trump said.

“I can tell you this. And a lot of people don’t like when I say it, but he was a young man of 26 or 27 when he took over from his father, when his father died. He’s dealing with obviously very tough people, in particular the generals and others.

“And, at a very young age, he was able to assume power. A lot of people, I’m sure, tried to take that power away, whether it was his uncle or anybody else. And he was able to do it. So, obviously, he’s a pretty smart cookie,” Trump said.

North Korea tested another missile last week, but it was only a “small missile.”

“This was not a big missile. This was not a nuclear test,” as some were anticipating, Trump said.

 

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