President Donald Trump has told the exact same story about joking with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to various world leaders multiple times, BuzzFeed News reports.
At the Group of Seven summit in France last month, Trump reportedly told the same story about meeting Kim in Singapore last year that he told at the previous G7 summit in Canada. The story involves Trump's nickname for Kim, "Little Rocket Man," which he first used in a tweet in September 2017. Trump met with the North Korean dictator later that year at a summit in Singapore, where the exchange took place.
"You called me fat … and then you called me this," Kim says in Trump's retelling.
"Don't you know Elton John? It's a great song," said Trump.
"But you called me 'little,'" Kim said.
"That's what he didn't like!" Trump apparently says to end the anecdote.
The president reportedly told the story this year after going on a tangent during a discussion on North Korea and its firing of short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, speaking for 10 minutes about his good relationship with Kim.
Trump's friendliness toward Kim and other dictators has drawn criticism, but Trump has insisted that his positive relationships will lead toward diplomatic progress — although North Korea has reportedly continued its nuclear weapons program. Kim recently sent a letter inviting Trump to Pyongyang amid stalled talks between the two countries over North Korea's nuclear program.
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