President Donald Trump really wants to rekindle his relationship with Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, but America’s decades-long union with the South is getting in the way. He cut short one military exercise with Seoul and canceled another in a gesture to Pyongyang, but the only response so far came not from Kim but his sister, who revealed her brother’s "good memories and feelings" about Trump. U.S. soldiers died fighting against the North in the Korean War, so Trump’s courting of Kim may be putting the South through a crisis of faith over the only ally it’s ever known.
A series of photos posted to Truth Social this week were another reminder of Trump’s longing for "rocket man" Kim, who could represent his last shot at peace in a year full of war. Trump has an odd way of flirting with dictators, an unusual brand of diplomacy that has successfully secured summits with Kim in addition to President Vladimir Putin of Russia and China’s leader Xi Jinping. Back when Trump was a freshman president, his opening lines to North Korea were threatening and he labeled Kim a "madman." That was before the pair "fell in love" over Kim’s "beautiful letters," he said at a rally in 2018.
Trump now speaks admiringly of Kim’s power and his resolve as a ruler. He believes they share a deeper understanding. He'd like to see me back too.
I think he misses me, if you want to know," he said at the Republican National Convention in 2024. Trump has been coy about his overtures to Kim this time around. He told the press that they would meet again, but he wouldn’t say whether Kim was returning his letters.
The thought of Kim writing letters is classically romantic. North Korea entered the digital age long ago, thanks to modern technologies smuggled in from the West or sourced from China. Kim, 42, is playing hard to get because he has the most to gain from Trump’s extra flattery.
The North Korean leader has long craved legitimacy like an influencer thrives off publicity, good or bad. Despite ruling one of the most isolated regimes—an effective pariah state living under U.N. sanctions for two decades—Kim is elevated to a statesman of equal standing each time Trump says his name. Trump has one eye on a never-ending Iran war and another on the upcoming midterms, but Kim can afford to wait for more favorable conditions because he has nothing to lose.
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