Trump already envisions condos and luxury hotels on North Korea's 'great beaches'

Trump talks about trying to persuade Kim Jong Un to give up his nukes

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

In his one-on-one meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un in Singapore on Tuesday, President Trump showed the North Korean despot an iPad video of what his totalitarian, communist regime could be like if it gave up its nuclear weapons and ambitions. "It's going to be up to them, it's going to be up to the people what they want," Trump told reporters in a news conference later Tuesday. "They may not want that. I can understand that, too. But that was a version of what could happen, what could take place."

"As an example, they have great beaches — you see that whenever they're exploding their cannons into the ocean, right? So I say, 'Boy, look at that view, wouldn't that make a great condo behind.' And I explain, I say, instead of doing that, you could have the best hotels in the world right there. Think of it from a real estate perspective: You have South Korea, you have China, and they own the land in the middle. How bad is that, right? It's great."

Syria will presumably be heartened to know that its great beaches between Turkey and Israel may draw Trump's interest someday, too.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.