Vice-President Mike Pence sat down for an interview on Wednesday with Axios in order to discuss various things, one of which was the cold shoulder he gave to Kim Yo Jong, the little sister of brutal North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
Pence famously pretended during the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony that Kim wasn’t even there as leaders sat down around each other. The move was lauded by many as the right thing to do, and lambasted by others as an undiplomatic move.
Pence clarified his actions during a round of Q&A with Axios co-founder Mike Allen, Pence said he “didn’t avoid the dictator’s sister, but I did ignore her.”
The reason he did so is to send the message that America knows who they’re dealing with.
"I didn’t avoid the dictator's sister, but I did ignore her," says VP Pence of not greeting Kim Jong Un's sister at Olympics. In @axios interview with @mikeallen, VP says that by his silence, he was sending the clear message that "we know who we're dealing with. pic.twitter.com/KXY7bVPSit
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) February 14, 2018
Indeed, the North Korean regime is responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed upon mankind in the modern era. Disease, parasites, and starvation run rampant. In fact, the starvation is so horrible that the military has been ordered by the government to take food from regular citizens, and even the nuclear tests currently conducted in agitation of the U.S. has nuclear fallout currently harming its citizens.
I could go on with examples of labor camps filled with undeserving people, and the torture they endure there, or the rampant rape of female soldiers in the military, but you get the idea.
Kim Yo Jong herself, whom the media is lovingly calling the “Ivanka Trump of North Korea” is part of the propaganda arm of the North Korean government, making her a cog in the wheel of one of the most inhumane regimes the world has ever seen.
Pence’s decision to not exchange niceties with Kim was an appreciable move. The U.S. should make a practice out of not glad-handing evil.
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