Trump 'offered Kim Jong Un a ride home on Oxygen Force One'
22 February, 2021
Donald Trump offered North Korean head Kim Jong Un a good ride home on Atmosphere Force One after a good summit in Hanoi 2 yrs ago, according to a new BBC documentary.
Kim and Trump first engaged in a battle of phrases and mutual threats, before a fantastic diplomatic bromance that featured headline-grabbing summits and a declaration of take pleasure in by the former US president.
But no substantive progress was made, with the process deadlocked following the pair's meeting in Hanoi split up over sanctions alleviation and what Pyongyang will be willing to quit in return.
According to a BBC documentary, "Trump Assumes the World", the US president "stunned even the many seasoned diplomats" by giving Kim a lift residence on Air Force A single following the 2019 summit in Vietnam.
If Kim had accepted the give, it would have put the North Korean leader - and probably some of his entourage - in the US president's official aircraft and seen it enter North Korean airspace, raising multiple protection issues.
In the event, Kim turned it down.
"President Trump offered Kim a lift home on Air Force One," Matthew Pottinger, the most notable Asia expert on Trump's National Reliability Council, told the BBC, it reported at the weekend.
"The president recognized that Kim had arrived on a multi-day coach ride through China into Hanoi and the president said: 'I will get you home on two hours if you want.' Kim declined."
For his primary summit with Trump in Singapore in 2018, Kim hitched a drive on an Air China plane, with Beijing keen to keep North Korea - whose presence as a buffer state keeps US troops in the South well from China's borders - firmly within its sphere of influence.
Through the Singapore summit, Trump provided Kim a glimpse inside his presidential express car - a US$1.5 million Cadillac generally known as "The Beast" - in a present of their newly friendly rapport.
But previous month Kim said the US was his nuclear-armed nation's "biggest enemy", adding that Washington's "coverage against North Korea won't change" no matter "who's in power".
North Korean established media have yet to make reference to Joe Biden - who beat Trump in previous year's election - by brand as US president.
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