The race to the general election has taken another odd turn now that Hillary Clinton Thursday publicly backed North Korea's decision to not engage in discussion with Donald Trump should he become president.
At her rally in San Jose, California, Clinton prefaced her comment about North Korea by telling the audience about some of the things Trump has recently said on the campaign trail. This included Trump's insults toward the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron.
"Because look at what Trump has said in recent days," she said. "He has attacked our closest ally, Great Britain. He has praised the dangerous dictator of North Korea."
She cut from this rant to tell the audience the "funny" part of this story.
"Now, this is a little funny though," she said. "He praised Kim Jong-un, and the North Korean ambassador to the UN came out yesterday and said they don't want to talk to Donald Trump."
She then backed the decision made by the regime.
"I mean, I don't attribute a lot of good sense to that regime but that's probably the right decision," she said.
In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Trump said that he was open to speaking with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator. This is drastically different than current American foreign policy towards the oppressive regime:
The presumptive Republican nominee declined to share details of his plans to deal with North Korea, but said he was open to talking to its leader.
"I would speak to him, I would have no problem speaking to him," he said.
Asked whether he would try to talk some sense into the North Korean leader, Trump replied, "Absolutely."
North Korea's ambassador to the United Kingdom rejected this offer shortly after the interview was published:
Ambassador Hyon Hak Bong said that Pyongyang views Trump’s offer as an electoral ploy that isn’t serious.
Hyon said that "we see it as the dramatics of a popular actor," adding that U.S. presidential candidates say a lot of things during a campaign but once they assume power they always adopt a hostile stance toward North Korea.
The timing is not right for talks, he said.
"North Korea has no package ready — the United States also has no package ready — to advance relations between the two countries," he said. "No progress can be made. That is why we say we have no interest whatever in remarks made by him."