President Says Kim ‘Loves His People’

SINGAPORE (AP) — President Donald Trump says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "loves his people, not that I'm surprised by that, but he loves his people."

Trump made his comments during an interview with VOA that followed his historic meeting with Kim, looking beyond Kim's international reputation for having one of the worst human rights records in the world.

Political prisoners in the country number in the tens of thousands and systematic torture and assassinations, including of his own brother, are not unheard of.

In the past, Trump has spoken of the "horror" of life in North Korea and met in February with eight defectors from that country at the White House.

The Vienna-based body set up to oversee a treaty banning nuclear testing worldwide is welcoming the "positive and direct dialogue" between the U.S. and North Korean leaders and offering to support verification efforts.

Lassina Zerbo is the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization. He says he hopes that Tuesday's summit "will provide a basis for progress toward verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

Zerbo says his group would, if invited, "support any verification activities for the permanent closure of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site."

The organization was created more than 20 years ago to monitor the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, but that deal has not yet gone into force because key nations have yet to ratify it.