Trump dismisses missile launches, says Kim will do ‘right thing’

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday brushed off recent missiles tests by North Korea and praised leader Kim Jong Un as someone who has a “great and beautiful vision for his country.”

Kim will “do the right thing because he is far too smart not to, and he does not want to disappoint his friend, President Trump!” the president tweeted.

He added that only with Trump in the White House can Kim’s vision come true, and then heaped praise on the dictator, saying North Korea’s potential as a country under Kim’s leadership “is unlimited.”

Trump’s tweets also downplayed recent missile launches, including the firing on Friday of two unidentified short-range projectiles off its east coast.

They landed in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, the news agency Yonhap reported.

That followed the firing of two short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday and two others launched last week, according to the military in Seoul.

Trump reiterated that he doesn’t see the launches as a violation of the agreement he and Kim signed in 2018 in Singapore.

There was no “discussion of short range missiles when we shook hands,” he said on Twitter, referring to their first meeting in June 2017.

But he added that the launches “may be a UN violation.”

Kim and Trump met on the military demarcation line inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea at the end of June and agreed to resume working-level negotiations on its nuclear weapons programme.