Donald Trump has said he wants people to treat him like people in North Korea treat Kim Jong-un.
Speaking live on Fox News on Friday afternoon, the US President said a White House meeting between him and the North Korean dictator “could happen”.
Trump added: “Hey, he’s the head of a country, and he’s the strong head, don’t let anyone think anything different, he speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”
It was not clear whether by “my people” the President meant all Americans or his staff.
Trump has declared there is “no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea” following his ground-breaking summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore.
However no guarantees were produced at the summit over how or when Pyongyang would disarm.
In the Fox News interview, Trump said of his relationship with Kim Jong-un: “We get along very well, we had good chemistry.”
Asked why he was “defending” the human rights record of the North Korean regime, Trump told reporters outside the White House: “I don’t want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family. I want to have a good relationship with North Korea. I want to have a good relationship with many countries.”
The interview came after Trump announced a 25% tariff on 50 billion US dollars worth of Chinese imports, escalating a trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.