Foreign Policy > North Korea

Kim Jong-un Is Not Our Friend

It’s hard for Americans to fathom the horror of what goes on every day in North Korea.

Jeffrey Folks | May 9, 2026

President Trump has repeatedly referred to Kim Jong-un as his “friend.”  I recognize that this is a bargaining technique and that it is necessary to employ deception when dealing with the likes of Kim, but I wish Trump would not do it.

Kim Jong-un is not Trump’s friend; he is not anybody’s friend.  He oversees the operation of brutal concentration camps, and he has reportedly carried out hundreds of executions, most of them public and involving firing squads but some private and involving the killing of pregnant women and teenagers and using blunt instruments such as pipes and hammers.  No one who represses his people to this extent is a friend to America, the greatest democracy on the planet.

Many of these executions and long-term prison sentences are meted out to what we would consider innocent victims for the “crimes” of listening to Western music or videos; practicing religion; and, at worst, attempting to escape North Korea.  Not only are the ones committing these offenses punished, but their entire family and circle of friends is swept up, something depicted in gripping terms in The Aquariums of Pyongyang.  Even small children, such as the young boy who carries his prized aquarium to the prison camp only to watch all his fish die, are sent to prison camps for the “crimes” of friends or family.

When public executions take place, thousands of persons, including spouses and children, are often forced to watch.  In some........

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