And she's a liar.
French president's office also contradicts account in book that documents killing of Cricket the dog
www.thedakotascout.com
In “No Going Back,” Noem says she met North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un while serving in Congress on the House Armed Services Committee. Last year as governor, she says she canceled a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
But neither account has been verified by congressional travel documents or outside sources reviewed by
The Dakota Scout. And
The Scout confirmed with the French president’s office that Macron never had a meeting scheduled with Noem.
The alleged meeting with Kim Jong Un is especially eye-raising to North Korea analysts and congressional staffers.
“It’s bullshit,” remarked a longtime, high-level Capitol Hill staffer who worked on the House Armed Services Committee during the period in which Noem says she met Kim. That staffer was among a dozen staffers interviewed by
The Scout who said they had no knowledge of the meeting, or who said Noem had never mentioned it before.
In the book, scheduled to be released May 7, Noem doesn’t go into detail about the meeting with Kim.
“Through my tenure on the House Armed Services Committee,” she wrote, “I had the chance to travel to many countries to meet with world leaders. I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. I’m sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I’d been a children’s pastor, after all). Dealing with foreign leaders takes resolve, preparation and determination. My experiences on those many foreign trips made me a better member of Congress and a stronger governor. It allowed me to hone my deal-making skills, which play a crucial role in leadership.”
Noem served on the House Armed Services Committee from 2013-2015. During that period, committee members including Noem visited China in 2014. But there is no record of Kim being in China then. After assuming the role of supreme leader of North Korea in 2011, Kim did not leave North Korea until 2018, says University of Notre Dame professor and North Korea expert George Lopez.
That timeline, along with Kim’s preference to operate through proxies, makes Noem’s account nearly impossible, Lopez said.
“I don’t see any conceivable way that a single junior member of Congress without explicit escort from the U.S. State Department and military would be meeting with a leader from North Korea,” said Lopez, an expert and published author on the country. “What would have been so critical in his bag of tricks that he would have met with an American lawmaker, this one distinctively?”
He noted that not even President Barack Obama had met with the dictator.
Following the China trip, Noem joined her congressional colleagues in documenting their experiences and meetings.
“Having just returned from this critical region, we heard directly from senior U.S. military commanders, along with key leaders in Japan and South Korea, about the desire for bolstering alliances that have been the cornerstone of stability in Asia,” they wrote in a column published by CNN. “We also met senior Chinese officials in Beijing and U.S. business leaders in Shanghai about potential opportunities and challenges accompanying China’s dramatic rise.”
Nowhere did they mention meeting Kim, or leaders from North Korea.
