Canada’s small community of North Korean defectors are angered by Trump’s insults for Justin Trudeau and flattery for Kim
In an unprecedented week for international geopolitics – during which Donald Trump praised the North Korean leader shortly after disparaging Canada’s prime minister – one group of people has been particularly shocked by the US president’s upending of diplomatic norms.
Canada’s small community of North Korean defectors has been shocked and infuriated by Trump’s contrasting treatment of the two leaders: insults for Justin Trudeau after the G7 meeting in Quebec and flattery for Kim Jong-un at the summit in Singapore .
Julie and David – who both asked to use pseudonyms for fear of retaliation by North Korean authorities – are a married couple who escaped from the reclusive country they said was “comparable to hell” in 2005 and now live in Toronto.
Speaking through a translator, Julie could not contain her anger at Trump’s behaviour. “Attacking Prime Minister Trudeau but then, 24 hours later, going to Singapore and praising a dictator who is a murderer – it was unbearable to watch,” she said.
She was particularly incensed by Trump’s failure to raise the subject of human rights abuses during his meetings with the Kim, who he described as a “very talented man” with a “great personality”.
Between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners are held in North Korean prisons, according to a UN commission of inquiry, which found that the regime’s crimes included “extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation”.
“They didn’t address what was happening to the people in North Korea – all he did was praise Kim Jong-un.
