North Korea lavishes praise on 'easily manipulated' Trump and makes most of US political turmoil

Experts say it isn't first time North Korea has tried to 'take advantage' of divisions in Washington

An op-ed in North Korea’s leading state-run newspaper has lavished praise on US president Donald Trump, while blaming a deadlock in peace talks on what it calls a “political scramble” in Washington.

The article in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper described Mr Trump’s handshake with Kim Jong-un in Singapore in June as “the greatest event in the present century”, but said progress from the summit risked falling “victim” to political opposition in the US.

Mr Trump has himself previously referred to domestic challenges - including the investigation into possible collusion with Russia over the 2016 election - as a distraction from his efforts to make peace with North Korea.

And experts said the editorial appeared designed to manipulate Mr Trump by speaking his language while drawing focus away from North Korea’s own unwillingness to work towards denuclearisation.

The editorial hailed the US president’s “dream about improvement of [North Korea]-US relations and world peace”, calling it an “epoch-making cause”. It described the meeting between the two leaders as something “realised by no other president in the history of America”.

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo, the article says, should “resolutely smash the opposition’s unreasonable and foolish assertions” that North Korea is continuing with secret nuclear facilities, and “realise the president’s will”.

Naoko Aoki, a research associate at the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland, said the North Korean regime has been “taking advantage” of clashes in US domestic politics since the 1990s, when Congress opposed a deal being discussed between American and North Korean officials.

The​ editorial “is trying to steer the process so that it is advantageous to North Korea, by appealing to President Trump”, she told The Independent.

“This editorial reinforces what North Korea watchers have been observing,” said Dr Hoo Chiew-Ping, a senior lecturer in Strategic Studies and International Relations at the National University of Malaysia. “That the regime has good knowledge about the working of US domestic politics and foreign policy decision making process, and use it to their advantage in gaining leverage or squeeze concessions during negotiations.

“Trump can be easily manipulated because he enjoys having lavish praise bestowed on him, which in turn causes US foreign policy to divert away from many of the norms and principles that the West generally treasures: democracy, morality, humanitarian, and human rights.”

In Singapore, Mr Trump and Mr Kim agreed to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, and in return the US president said he would being dialling down American involvement in joint military exercises with South Korea, calling them “provocative”.

But since then, US intelligence agents have warned that North Korea appears to have stepped up its production of nuclear fuel at key weapons facilities.

Progress in talks between the two countries has stalled, and Pyongyang said it was “regrettable” that Mr Pompeo demanded unilateral denuclearisation in his third visit to the North Korean capital in July.

“The problem is that there has yet to be a concrete plan to implement the vague goals of denuclearisation and improvement of relations outlined in the Singapore joint statement,” said Ms Aoki. “This is the downside of top-down diplomacy - the specifics have to be decided later.”