Still angling for a deal, Trump backs Kim Jong Un over Biden, Bolton and Japan

TOKYO — President Trump on Monday denied that North Korea had fired any ballistic missiles or violated the United Nations Security Council resolutions, taking the word of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over the assessments of his own national security adviser and his Japanese host. He praised the murderous dictator as a “very smart man.”

He also again sided with Kim over former vice president Joe Biden, after his Democratic rival was branded a “fool of low I.Q.” by North Korea’s state media for calling the North Korean leader a dictator and a tyrant.

At a joint news conference with Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Trump gave cover to Kim as he directly contradicted his national security adviser, John Bolton, as well as Abe, by arguing that Pyongyang had not launched ballistic missiles this month or violated U.N. Security Council resolutions.

View the complete May 27 article by Ashley Parker and Simon Denyer on The Washington Post website here.