Trump says his 'friend' Kim Jong Un could turn North Korea into the next Vietnam

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Ahead of his summit in Hanoi with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, President Trump tweeted on Tuesday night that his "friend" just needs to agree to denuclearize, and his country could prosper.

"Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth," he said. "North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize. The potential is AWESOME, a great opportunity, like almost none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong Un. We will know fairly soon — Very Interesting!"

He followed with a second tweet criticizing Democrats, saying they need to "stop talking about what I should do with North Korea and ask themselves instead why they didn't do 'it' during eight years of the Obama Administration?" Trump and Kim met for the first time last year in Singapore, and Trump has touted that summit and steps he says have been made toward denuclearization. Satellite images show, however, that there are at least 20 secret missile bases in North Korea.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.