Rubio Says Kim Jong Un Is Not Expansionist, Unlike Iran’s Rulers

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio contrasted North Korea with Iran on Friday, telling a conservative legal audience that Kim Jong Un is focused on keeping his government in power rather than seizing territory.

He delivered the remarks at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, as the keynote of a conservative legal convention hosted by the Federalist Society.

Kim’s Goal Is Survival

“Imagine North Korea. But North Korea is just governed by a guy that’s a little – you know, you know,” Rubio said, according to a State Department transcript, drawing laughter before he clarified the point.

“What I mean is he’s not interested in, like, conquering Japan, okay? He just wants to survive in his regime, and I’m not excusing the terrible things that have happened there,” Rubio said.

“But he’s not expansionist,” he added. “He’s not looking to, like, invade Japan and invade China, whatever. He’s not.”

The comments came as South Korea is trying to restart talks with Pyongyang and after North Korea changed the official proportions of its national flag for the first time since 1948.

President Donald Trump has met Kim three times.

Iran Called Expansionist

Rubio then turned back to Iran, referring to the Islamic republic’s rulers, not to Kim.

“These people are expansionist. They’re revolutionaries,” he said. “And armed with a nuclear weapon?”

He said Iran is led by “radical Shia clerics” motivated by theology, and that “if you don’t understand this, you don’t understand Iran.”

Last week in Paris, Rubio said economic pressure on Tehran was “extraordinary and compounding.” On Friday he argued that victory means Iran can “never have a nuclear weapon,” and that the pain already being inflicted is so great that “there’s no need for military action because we’ve weakened them so much.”

He also said Iran’s “expansionist mentality” is the common thread behind threats from the Houthis, Shia militias in Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Speech Follows Midterm Losses

The Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture, given at the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention, was Rubio’s first prepared remarks since Republicans were routed in the Nov. 3 midterms.

Much of the address targeted the International Criminal Court and what he described as the weaponization of international law. He said the United States would not “submit to the sterile vision of radical judges or soulless global bureaucrats.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom mocked the North Korea comments on X while a nationwide FAA ground stop left travelers stranded: “Don’t worry, America, while you’re stuck at the airport this Friday night, Marco Rubio is defending North Korea.”