Haley accuses Trump of exchanging ‘love letters’ with Kim Jong Un

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley mentioned her rival Donald Trump in a campaign rally in Nashua, New Hampshire on Saturday (local time), arguing that he said based on the "love letters” sent by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that the dictator had no idea the torture of Otto Warmbier. The audience groaned as the 29th U.S. ambassador to the U.N. remarked on Warmbier, a U.S. college student who died in 2017 – six months after returning home following 17 months’ detention in North Korea. With Trump in mind, Haley said that joining hands with dictators and rogues should never happen, mainly when the world is in the flames of war.

The former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. accused the former president’s North Korea policy in a harsh tone in three campaign rallies on Saturday. This Tuesday, The New Hampshire primary will determine whether Trump will become the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. In response, Haley hits him over having a “bromance” with Kim.

She spent more than 10 minutes on diplomatic policies in the 30-minute-long speech on Saturday, aiming at Trump. She argued that Europe and the Middle East, respectively, are in the middle of a war, and Pyongyang is testing ICBMs that may reach the U.S. mainland. China is marching to war, emphasizing that serving as U.S. president is not supposed to be like a game anymore when the country is divided amid the world in flames.

Pointing out that Trump boasted of exchanging letters with Kim, she bashed the former president for leaving Warmbier’s parents heartbroken by saying that he sent “love letters” to the man who tortured their son. In a rally in Peterborough in the afternoon, she also argued that Trump acclaimed Chinese President Xi Jinping several times even after China spread COVID-19. Later in the day, she criticized Trump’s obsession over close relationships with dictators in front of reporters.

The bromance between Trump and Kim will be one of the hot potatoes in the Republican Party primaries, including the New Hampshire contest. On Monday, one day before the upcoming primary, Haley's campaign will release a three-minute-long TV ad where Cindy Warmbier, the mother of Otto Warmbier, speaks in support of the candidate.


weappon@donga.com