South Dakota Gov. Noem admits error of describing meeting North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in new book

WASHINGTON — South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is releasing a new book called ‘No Going Back,’ but on Friday her office said she would actually go back and correct some errors — including a false claim that she ever met had with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. .

The Republican governor’s new book was part of an open effort to be selected as a running mate for Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but it has already faced a bipartisan backlash over a story about how she once shot hunting dog. Then, after investigating her descriptions of meetings with international leaders, her spokesman Ian Fury said in a statement that it was a mistake to include Kim in a list of world leaders Noem has met — and that the publisher will cancel all future editions of the meeting would correct. book.

Noem’s political prospects had already slumped amid widespread disgust over how she said she killed her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer named Cricket after he displayed aggressive behavior and killed her neighbor’s chickens.

In her forthcoming book, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” Noem also details instances in which she has stood up to international leaders — anecdotes that would have given her support. foreign policy experiences – but these were quickly questioned. She writes about the cancellation of a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

After The Dakota Scout first reported Noem’s descriptions of the meetings, Fury said the book “contains two minor errors. This has been reported to the ghostwriter and editor.”

In addition to the meeting with Kim, Fury said Noem also got the dates wrong when she spoke with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.

“The book has not yet been released and all future editions will be corrected,” Fury added.

In a section of the book on meetings with international leaders, Noem writes: ‘During my tenure on the House Armed Services Committee, I had the opportunity to travel to many countries to meet with world leaders – some who wanted our help, and some who did. not.

“I remember meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un,” she writes. “I’m sure he underestimated me because he had no idea of ​​my experience staring down little tyrants (after all, I had been a children’s pastor).”

The description of such a meeting was quickly disputed and labeled as unlikely by experts on US-North Korea relations. When Noem served on the House Armed Services Committee from 2013 to 2015, relations between the two countries were tense and a meeting with Kim in a congressional delegation would have generated significant awareness, said Syd Seiler, a former U.S. intelligence officer who worked for decades to the relationship with North Korea.

“Nothing like that happened,” he said, adding that he worked at the White House and State Department during that period and was not informed of a congressional meeting with Kim.

Noem took part in an international conference trip, known as a codel, to Japan, South Korea and China in 2014.

In the book, Noem also writes that she met with Macron last November while in Paris for a conference of European conservative leaders, but canceled when he made comments she deemed “pro-Hamas.”

However, Macron’s office told The Associated Press that no “direct invitation” had been extended to Noem to meet the French president, although it did not rule out that she may have been invited to an event in Paris where he would also attend.

Fury said: “The Governor was invited to sit in President Macron’s box for the Armistice Day Parade at the Arc de Triomphe. After his anti-Israel comments, she decided to cancel it.”

Meanwhile, Noem tries to fend off the backlash as she writes about shooting both her dog and a goat.

“Don’t believe the twisted spin of the #fakenews media,” she posted this week on the social platform & killing livestock.”

Her spokesman, Fury, also called the investigation into the errors in Noem’s book biased, saying, “The media will of course try to make these small issues big.”

Still, members of Congress have poked fun at Noem, with representatives from Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat; Susan Wild, a Democrat from Pennsylvania; and Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina; launching a Congressional Dog Lovers Caucus this week.

Moskowitz said on X that one of the group’s rules was: “You can’t kill a puppy.”

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Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed.