Former US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that the Elton John CD he gifted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his presidency was "made in South Korea". Speaking on the 'Full Send Pocast', Mr Trump stated that the gag gift for Mr Kim - who he mockingly dubbed "Little Rocket Man" - worked to steer the relationship between North and South Korea in a positive direction.
"I asked him, 'Did you ever hear of the song Rocket Man?' when I was with him. He said, 'No, no, no,'" Mr Trump recalled. "Did you ever hear about Elton John? 'No, no, no.' I actually handed him the song 'Rocket Man,' which is a pretty good song by Elton John." he added.
"I gave him a tape ...I didn't show that it was made in South Korea, frankly. That the record - it said 'South Korea.' I said, 'Take that off.' We had it chiseled off," Mr Trump joked.
According to New York Post, in 2018, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on Mr Trump's behalf, handed the CD to Kim Jong-un during the administration's meetings with North Korea's leader.
The CD then paved the way for his controversial 2019 meeting with the dictator. The meeting made Donald Trump the first sitting US President to cross into North Korea.
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Meanwhile, in the podcast, Mr Trump also called Kim Jong-un a "smart, cunning and ruthless person". "But I got to know him very well," he said, as per Newsweek. "And I think we would have had nuclear war, had Obama been able to stay or had crooked Hillary Clinton become president, you would have had a nuclear war with North Korea," Mr Trump added.
Notably, Donald Trump first coined the term "Rocket Man" to describe Mr Kim in 2017, a jab at North Korea's uptick in missile and nuclear testing.
