North Korea has taken a shine to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, with a recent editorial in a state-controlled news publication calling him a "wise politician."
The column, published Tuesday by DPRK Today, called Trump the right choice to "liberate Americans living under daily fear of nuclear attack by the North," while calling Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton "thick headed,"
Reuters reported.
Trump has said he would talk with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program, while Clinton has proposed wide sanctions.
"It turns out that Trump is not the rough-talking, screwy, ignorant candidate they say he is, but is actually a wise politician and a prescient presidential candidate," said the column written by scholar Han Yong Muk.
The column also praised Trump's comments made to The New York Times in March, when he said that South Korea should bear the cost of U.S. troops stationed there or face a possible withdrawal,
The Associated Press reported.
"Yes, go away, now!" the column said, referring to the American troops. "Who knew that the 'Yankee Go Home' slogan we shouted so enthusiastically could come true so easily like this? The day that the 'Yankee Go Home' slogan becomes reality would be the day of unification."
On Wednesday, a column in North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper said Trump's withdrawal comments and stated willingness to talk with Kim Jong Un shocked South Korean policy makers,
The New York Times reported.
“The tragedy is that the South’s authorities are incapable of feeling any national shame, no matter how their American masters subject them to an unbearable humiliation,” the Times quoted the Rodong Sinmun column as saying. “Their attitude is best shown by the way they got scared by Trump’s comments and groveled.”
South Korean officials said they have reached out to Trump’s advisers to underscore the importance of the U.S. military presence there, the Times reported.
North Korea's stance sparked a wide range of comments on Twitter.