President Donald Trump on Sunday again mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson should not bother trying to negotiate with him in an effort to stop the country’s development of nuclear weapons.
“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful secretary of state, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man...” Trump said on Twitter, CNN reported.
He continued, “...Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!”
Later Sunday afternoon, Trump added: “Being nice to Rocket Man hasn’t worked in 25 years, why would it work now? Clinton failed, Bush failed, and Obama failed. I won’t fail.”
Kim was officially declared leader of North Korea following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in 2011.
Trump’s tweets undermining his secretary of state come a day after Tillerson said the US had direct lines of communication with North Korea and that he was trying to “calm things down” following months of escalating rhetoric over Pyongyang’s continued nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests.
Tillerson, speaking at a press conference in Beijing, said the US made it clear through its direct channels to North Korea that it was seeking peace through talks.
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