Fox News host Tucker Carlson appeared to defend North Korea’s atrocities and implied that we should not be criticizing them so much on Fox & Friends Sunday.
When asked if President Trump runs the risk of coming off as “pandering” and not standing firm on American principles, Carlson initially responded, “There’s no defending the North Korean regime, which is a monstrous regime. It’s the last really Stalinist regime in the world. It’s a disgusting place, obviously. So there is no defending it.”
However, he himself then proceeded to defend the regime.
“On the other hand, you know you got to be honest of what it means to lead a country. It means killing people. Not on the scale that North Koreans do, but a lot of countries commit atrocities, including a number that we are closely allied with. I’m not a relativist or anything, but it’s important to be honest about that.”
Carlson added, “You know, there is a kind of Samantha Power dorm-room-like, ‘oh they’re so mean.’ And it’s kind of silly and stupid and not helpful. In the end, what matters is what’s good for the United States.”
North Korea currently remains on the U.S. State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, which are countries that have been determined by the Secretary of State to have “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.”
North Korea conducted terrorist operations to kill South Korean heads of state in 1968 and 1983. As recently as 1987, North Korea bombed an international passenger flight, Korean Air Flight 858, killing all 115 passengers.
And of course, as recently as 2018, U.S. federal courts found the North Korean government liable for University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier’s torture and murder after North Korea did not contest the case.
North Korea has also committed atrocities against other nations besides South Korea and the United States.
North Korea granted asylum to Japanese airline hijackers in 1970, while, from 1977 to 1983, North Korea abducted at least 17 Japanese citizens, restricting their movement so that several may have allegedly died in North Korea.
Lastly, North Korea has carried out and carries out some of the most brutal atrocities against its own citizens.
A United Nation’s Report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 2014 concludes that North Korea was committing “unspeakable atrocities” against its own people on a vast scale and conducting “widespread, systematic and gross” violations of human rights that amounted to crimes against humanity.
The report estimates that there are “between 80,000 and 120,000 people” detained in political prison camps in 2014.
Extrajudicial and politically-motivated executions consistently take place against people who smuggle foreign movies, are defectors, and express dissatisfaction against the regime. The most notable recent execution being the execution of Supreme Leader Kim’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, in 2013.
The UN report suggests that so many terrorizing executions have taken place that “almost every citizen of the DPRK has become a witness to an execution because they are often performed publicly in central places.”
The list goes on with crimes against humanity in political prison camps and in the ordinary prison system; crimes against humanity targeting religious believers; and crimes against humanity targeting persons who try to flee the country.
There have been roughly 100,000 to 300,000 North Korean defectors since the Korean War ended in an armistice in 1953. Around 30,000 North Koreans have defected into the South; 200 into the United States; and several hundred into Europe.
It remains unclear whether President Trump has brought up human rights concerns with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their private meeting at the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
But, during their interaction with the press, according to Sky News, “shouted questions from journalists about human rights abuses by the regime went ignored.”
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