Gov. Kristi Noem's account of meeting North Korean dictator in doubt

French president's office also contradicts account in book that documents killing of Cricket the dog

(Austin Goss/The Dakota Scout)

UPDATE: Since the original publication of this story, a Noem spokesman told The Dakota Scout “the publisher will be addressing conflated world leaders’ names in the book before it is released.”

An upcoming book by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem that has created an uproar over her account of shooting a dog also contains at least two instances in which she recounts meetings with world leaders that are in dispute.

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.

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“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.

Benjamin Young, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and an expert on North Korea, said Noem’s account of meeting Kim was “dubious.”

“There’s no way,” he said. “There’s no way.” 

During Noem’s time on Armed Services, the Obama administration was practicing “strategic patience” with North Korea, hoping the regime would collapse, and there was little active communication among the two governments, Young said.

North Korea has a “flawed understanding” of how western democracies work, he added. Leaders there think the president exercises great power with absolute authority, and Kim would only speak with an American president. 

“I cover North Korea very closely, and I have never heard of Kim Jong Un meeting congressmen or congresswomen,” Young said.

Kim eventually met President Donald Trump and close advisors in Singapore in the summer of 2018, Lopez said, when Noem was still in Congress but running for governor. No members of Congress joined in for the trip.

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In a statement, Noem’s office said that she does not discuss her meetings with foreign leaders. Her office did not respond publicly to more detailed questions Thursday.

But in other parts of the book, in which she recounts meetings that are publicly documented, Noem is more effusive in describing those accounts. One such example comes when the governor details her interactions with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a stateside speaking event. 

“She asked several insightful questions about fiscal discipline, conservative policies, running for office, and effective communication with the public,” Noem noted. “We had a very human conversation about being decisive and the double standards sometimes applied to women in leadership.” Similar anecdotes are offered about meetings with world leaders like Israel’s Benjamin Netenyahu.

Noem’s meeting with Macron, according to the account in her book, coincided with a trip she had to France.

“While in Paris, I was slated to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron,” Noem writes. “However, the day before we were to meet he made what I considered a very pro-Hamas and anti-Israel comment to the press. So, I decided to cancel. There is no place for pro-Hamas rhetoric.”

The Scout confirmed through the French president’s office that Noem did not receive a “direct invitation” from the French president. However, the office didn’t rule out the possibility that Noem – who was in Paris for a political conference – could have been scheduled to attend an event where Macron was also scheduled. Noem spoke at the conference on Friday, Nov. 10, the same day that Macron called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Noem’s account of shooting Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, has drawn widespread condemnation across the political spectrum. Noem has defended the decision, which occurred before she entered politics, because she says the dog was vicious and untrainable.

UPDATE: Noem’s office responded to the allegations in this story. You can read their response here.

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