Trump, Kim star in mock movie trailer produced by White House

When U.S. President DonaldTrump sat down to make the case for peace to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday, he rolled out what amounted to amovie trailer starring the two leaders.

Trump said he urged Kim and other North Korean officials towatch a four-minute video produced before the Singapore summit.Trump said Kim and other senior members of the North Koreandelegation huddled around an iPad to watch the video, whichappeared to draw more from the hype of Hollywood than thecareful language of diplomacy.

"I think he loved it," Trump said, referring to Kim, addingthat he gave the North Koreans their own copy.

White House produces 'trailer' for Trump, Kim summit

6 years ago

Duration 2:35

U.S. President Donald Trump showed a video styled after a movie trailer in which North Korea's Kim Jong-un is offered a choice between prosperity and isolation

Kim's late father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, was aHollywood film buff, with a special affection for director Steven Spielberg and actress Elizabeth Taylor and an extensivevideo library to match, according to defectors and intelligence agencies.

White House officials also arranged for the video to beplayed for reporters at Trump's post-summit news conference.

Thevideo was produced by the U.S. government to help persuade Kimto make a deal, a White House official said. "An audience ofone," the official said.

The video mixes both Hollywood cliches and propaganda film tropesthat play over a pulsing orchestral score. It appears to be composed almost entirely of generic stock footage and old newsclips, including images of Trump and Kim smiling.

There is anEnglish-language version and one in Korean, the narrator havinga South Korean accent.

At one point, it features a montage with babies and carfactories, suggesting what a more prosperous future for North Korea could look like if it agreed to give up its nucleararsenal. To illustrate the point, ballistic missiles are shownin reverse motion, pulling back into their launch silos.

"The past doesn't have to be the future," a narrator says asthe video showed the demilitarized zone that has separated Northand South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Then later, the narrator says, "a new world can begintoday," as an animated sequence suggests what the impoverished North Korea could look like from space if it was as brightly litup at night as the far more prosperous South Korea.

Trump and Kim reached a broad agreement, short on details, that North Koreawould move toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, while theUnited States committed to providing security guarantees andsuspending joint military exercises with longtime ally South Korea a major irritant to the North but one which the U.S. and South Korea have always said was necessary.

The credit on the video said it was produced by DestinyPictures, which disrupted the morning of Mark Castaldo, who ownsa Los Angeles-based production company with the same name,albeit with a different logo than the one in the video.

"We had nothing to do with that film," Castaldo said in atelephone interview, adding he had awoken to a deluge of calls and emails from journalists around the world. "Propaganda, allthat stuff, that's not something we'd get involved in."

At times, the video appeared to address Kim directly,suggesting he could make a choice that would open North Korea tonew investment and step into a starring role in a moment inhistory with Trump.

"Featuring President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-unin a meeting to remake history, to shine in the sun," the narrator says. "One moment. One choice. What if?"

While Trump hailed the Singapore summit as a great success, U.S. lawmakers expressed skepticism, saying they wanted more details about what exactly was discussed. Some also questioned whether Trump gave away too much in promising to halt joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises.

In statements relayed by North Korea's state-run news agency, Kim called for Pyongyang and Washington to end "irritating and hostile military actions" against each other. But it made no mention of North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons program.

If the United States takes genuine measures to build trust with North Korea, the North will take additional goodwill measures, Kim said, according to a Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) report on Wednesday.

The two leaders also accepted invitations to visit one another.

"Kim Jong-un invited Trump to visit Pyongyang at a convenient time, and Trump invited Kim Jong-un to visit the U.S. The two top leaders gladly accepted each other's invitation," KCNA said.