In the wake of the news that President Donald Trump was cancelling the upcoming summit with North Korea, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued a statement stating not just support for Trump’s decision to cancel the summit, but also going a step further than the President and urging North Korean leaders to consider getting rid of Kim Jong Un.
Kim has served as North Korea’s “Supreme Leader” (the title their country bestows upon their political leaders) since 2011, when his father Kim Jong Il passed away. Like his father before him, Kim’s tenure in office has been characterized by a megalomaniacal ambition to acquire nuclear weapons and the brutal oppression of his own people. Even his own family is not immune: Kim’s exiled half-brother Kim Jong Nam was assassinated last year with a nerve agent at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
In his letter giving notice that he was cancelling the summit, which had been planned for June 12th in Singapore, Trump cited the “tremendous anger and open hostility” in Kim’s recent statements as the reason that the summit would now be “inappropriate.” As one of my RedState colleagues noted earlier, in addition to Kim’s belligerent comments, a major “sticking point” was the fact that “North Korea’s definition of denuclearization did not extend to an independently verifiable eradication of North Korea’s nuclear weapons stockpile and its ability to make future weapons.”
Trump’s letter also thanked Kim for the recent release of three American hostages and left the door open to continue talks to reschedule the summit at a future date.
In a statement released by his office, Rubio said that he “100% support[ed] the President’s decision” to cancel the summit, placing blame on Kim for “trying to sabotage the summit and set the United States up to take the blame,” with the goal “either to gain sanctions relief in exchange for nothing, or to collapse international sanctions by making the U.S. appear to be the unreasonable party.”
However, Rubio went a step further than the President in the final sentence of his statement, calling for regime change in North Korea, and urging other North Korean leaders to “get rid of Kim Jong Un as soon as possible” if they “want a better future” for their country.
I 100% support the President’s decision. For two weeks now, North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un has been trying to sabotage the summit and set the United States up to take the blame. He made a big show of freeing hostages and supposedly dismantling a nuclear site to make himself appear reasonable and conciliatory. But in the end it is now apparent his goal was either to gain sanctions relief in exchange for nothing, or to collapse international sanctions by making the U.S. appear to be the unreasonable party. If other leaders in North Korea want a better future, they should get rid of Kim Jong Un as soon as possible.
Rubio reaffirmed the strong tone of these remarks on his Twitter account, dismissing Kim’s claims of shutting down a nuclear test site as just a “show” to create a false impression that he was being “cooperative and responsible,” and even dropping DJ Khaled‘s famous catchphrase to mock Kim.
#NKorea “shutting down” test site is a show to make #KJU appear cooperative & responsible. Bottom line is they either give up nukes & missiles or they don’t. I suspect they don’t want a deal,but want U.S. blamed for it so international sanctions collapse https://t.co/swc5F8YsKv
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) May 24, 2018
Kim Jun Un, in the words of a wise man “Congratulations, you just played yourself”. Withdrawing from talks with #NKorea is 100% the right decision. #KJU doesn’t want a deal. He has deliberately sabotaged the talks over the last two weeks & was setting us up to take the blame.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) May 24, 2018
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[Cross-posted at RedState.]