Ben Shapiro criticizes Trump for trusting Kim Jong Un

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro criticized President Trump for trusting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following the two leaders’ historic summit in Singapore on Tuesday.

“The president’s praise for the dictator of North Korea was disquieting,” Shapiro said Tuesday on “Fox and Friends” while noting North Korea’s human rights record.

{mosads}

Shapiro said North Korea is a “slave state with 25 million prisoners and a gulag system.”

.@benshapiro: “This is a slave state with 25 million prisoners… The president’s praise for the dictator was disquieting.” pic.twitter.com/n9gghLVfxI

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 12, 2018

He pointed to a former North Korean prisoner, American college student Otto Warmbier, who died after being detained in the country for 17 months.

 “If the president really wants to make sure that Otto Warmbier didn’t die in vain, then I think that it is incumbent on him to be as harsh as humanly possible on the Kim regime,” Shapiro said.

Trump reportedly spoke to the student’s parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, last month ahead of the highly anticipated meeting.

.@benshapiro: “If the president really wants to make sure that Otto Warmbier didn’t die in vain then I think that it is incumbent on him to be as harsh as humanly possible on the Kim regime.” pic.twitter.com/eiXkJMAPtG

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 12, 2018

The president, however, told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he sometimes “felt foolish” in the past for using harsh rhetoric when condemning North Korea.

Shapiro said that Trump’s sense of triumph following the brief summit on Tuesday is not justified.

“The piece of paper that got signed yesterday is, frankly, weak,” Shapiro said of the denuclearization document signed by the leaders.

Trump and Kim signed an agreement committing the United States to “security guarantees” in exchange for North Korea’s denuclearization.

The unspecified document offered few details but Trump called it “pretty comprehensive.”

“I think both sides are going to be impressed with the result,” Trump told reporters. “We’re going to take care of a very big and very dangerous problem for the world.”