Duterte: Somebody has to talk to Kim Jong-Un to prevent nuclear war

President Rodrigo Duterte delivers a speech at the Davao City International Airport on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017, shortly before leaving for Japan for a two-day visit. (Photo from an RTVM video)

President Rodrigo Duterte said on Sunday night that somebody would have to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to prevent nuclear war from breaking out in the Korean peninsula.

The President said somebody would have to assure the North Korean leader that that the West and its allies in the region would not threaten him or plan to oust him from power.

“A nuclear war is totally unacceptable to everybody. Somebody has to talk to [Kim Jong] Un,” Duterte said in a press conference at the Davao International Airport before boarding his flight for Tokyo.

The President said the issue of North Korea would one one of the topics he would discuss with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his two-day visit to Japan.

“All leaders agree that he’s a dangerous man, [but] you must remember he is a leader of his people. Somebody has to talk to him,” Duterte said.

“Somebody has to go there,” he added. “It would be good for America, Japan, [South] Korea and Mr. Kim Jong Un to talk and convince him to sit down in a round table [and say] nobody is threatening him. There will be no war.”

Duterte said the United States was not planning to “destroy” North Korea, adding that the international community would not agree to that.

“Just to assure him that, ‘nobody is after you.’ America is not about ready to destroy a generation or a people. That is not acceptable now,” he said.

“My friend, why don’t you just join us in the table and talk about this? Guarantee that there’s no threat in the offing, no plan at all to remove him. Stay where you are right now. We can start with the talks,” he added.

The President said the only country that can “calm down” the North Korean leader was China.

“Nobody is talking to him. I don’t know about China. The single country that can calm him down is China,” he said.

The President said China, Japan, and South Korea were the countries primarily threatened by a nuclear war erupting in the Korean peninsula. /atm