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Donald Trump has come under fire from Republicans for complimenting North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un after his country was admitted to the Executive Board of the World Health Organization.
“Congratulations to Kim Jung Un!” The former president wrote on Truth Social, misspelling his name when sharing the news of the induction.
The post was immediately condemned by Republican presidential candidates and state party leaders.
“Kim Jong Un is starving his own people,” said Trump’s former UN ambassador and 2024 opponent Nikki Haley said on Twitter.
“It is a total farce that North Korea has a leading role in the World Health Organization.”
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp wrote: “Taking back our country from Joe Biden doesn’t begin with congratulating North Korea’s murderous dictator.”
Kim Jong Un is starving his own people.
It is an absolute farce that North Korea has a leading role in the World Health Organization.
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) June 2, 2023
Former Republican Governor of Maryland Larry Page also mocked Mr Trump: “Kim Jong-un is an enemy of America who threatens peace and freedom. The fact that Trump delusional believes otherwise makes him a useful idiot for China and unfit to be President.”
Mr Trump famously maintained a cordial relationship with Mr Kim during his year-long presidency, frequently praising the 39-year-old despot and being the first sitting US leader to visit the isolated communist country.
He even boasted of exchanging “love letters” with Mr Kim, who frequently threatens the US and its allies with nuclear attacks.
Others pointed out the peculiarity of their relationship.
“Donald Trump, who raves about a dictator like Kim Jong-un, feels very comfortable for a would-be dictator like Trump,” said one Twitter user Posted.
Donald Trump congratulated Kim Jong-un on bringing North Korea to the WHO board
(Associated Press)
dr Jong Min Pak became the first North Korean official to serve a three-year term on WHO’s Executive Board this week.
“It means that one of the world’s most appalling regimes is now part of a group that sets and enforces the standards and norms for global health care governance,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, said in a statement.
“It is an absurd episode for an important UN agency in dire need of self-reflection and reform.”
Other board members are Australia, Barbados, Cameroon, Comoros, Lesotho, Qatar, Switzerland, Togo and Ukraine.
Several recent appointments to senior positions in international organizations of individuals who have frequently committed human rights violations were also condemned.
Russia took over the leadership of the United Nations Security Council in April, while Iran chairs the UN Human Rights Council’s 2023 Social Forum.
A South Korean lawmaker said this week that Mr Kim is obese and suffers from severe insomnia and alcohol addiction.