Trump praises Kim Jong Un as 'very honorable' It's a dramatic change in tone from Trump, who has previously knocked the North Korean leader as a 'maniac.'

After months of deriding Kim Jong-Un as "little rocket man," a "maniac," and a "madman," President Donald Trump on Tuesday praised the North Korean dictator as a "very open" and "very honorable" negotiator.

"We're having very, very good discussions," Trump said during a bilateral meeting with President Emmanuel Macron of France in the White House Cabinet Room. "Kim Jong Un was — he really has been very open. I think very honorable, from everything we're seeing."


Asked to clarify his compliments at a joint press conference with Macron later on Tuesday, Trump said the tone of his yet-to-be-scheduled historic sit-down with Kim is "going to be very positive," and refused to speculate on the outcome the meeting.

“I hope that we will be able to deal in a very open and honorable fashion with North Korea,” he said.

The president added that “a meeting is a great thing,” but said his administration has not yet discussed any concessions for a potential summit with Kim, such as the release of three Americans who remain imprisoned in North Korea.

“Maybe good things will happen, and maybe we’re all wasting a lot of time,” Trump said.

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On Friday, North Korea announced it would immediately halt its nuclear and missile testing ahead of the summit, but Trump insisted Tuesday that total denuclearization is the ultimate goal of a meeting with Kim. “It means they get rid of their nukes,” Trump said when asked what he means by denuclearization. “It’s very simple.”

Kim’s potential meeting with Trump would be the North Korean leader's third foray into international diplomacy this year. In what was believed to be his first trip outside North Korea since assuming power in 2011, Kim made a surprise visit to Beijing last month to meet with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. And on Friday, Kim will meet President Moon Jae-in of South Korea for the first time at Panmunjom, a neutral village on the border between the two countries.

“I think we have the chance of doing something very special with North Korea,” the president said on Tuesday.

"Now, a lot of promises have been made by North Korea over the years, but they've never been in this position," Trump added, citing his administration's "maximum pressure" policy of economic sanctions on Kim's regime. "We think it will be a great thing for North Korea. It will be a great thing for the world."

Since taking office, Trump has offered harsh words for Kim, and at times has appeared to taunt the North Korean dictator.

In a September speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Trump warned that "rocket man is on a suicide mission" by pursuing his nuclear ambitions, and threatened that the United States “will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea” if America is forced to defend itself of its allies.

Kim called Trump’s speech “unprecedented rude nonsense” for which the president will “pay dearly,” and pledged to “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”

The Kim family and the Worker’s Party of Korea have ruled North Korea for seven decades, and it remains one of the world’s most repressive authoritarian states, according to the Human Rights Watch’s annual World Report .

A United Nations report on human rights under Kim’s regime found that his government’s crimes against humanity included enslavement, extermination, forced abortion, imprisonment, murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and torture.

