(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday said several countries could “reach out” to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and assure him that “nobody was after (him).”
In a press conference in Davao prior to his departure for his three-day working visit in Japan, President Duterte said in particular, “it would be good if America, Japan, (South) Korea and Mr. Kim Jong Un talk to convince him to sit down on a roundtable.
He said the countries could tell the North Korean leader that “no one’s threatening him, (that) no war (was) to be done.”
“That stop the threats and that would be the same for America. Just to assure him ‘nobody’s after you.’ That America is not about to destroy a nation of people,” he said.
He said “if there was a single country to calm” North Korea down, that would be China.
The Philippines, he said, could also be of service.
“A nuclear war is totally unacceptable to everybody. Somebody has to talk to Kim Jong Un. I know that I have joined the echo for him to do, just lower a bit your aggressiveness… You must remember he is a leader of his people. Whatever he proclaims himself to be, somebody must talk to him,” he said.
“There is no plan at all to remove him.Stay where you are. We can start with talks. We are not stopping you forcefully but it would go a long way if there was someone you could talk to,” he added.