Hannity ignores personal appeals from past presidents to criticize Obama for letter to “pen pal” Kim Jong Il

Written by Jeremy Holden

Published

Issuing a reactionary attack on the administration, Sean Hannity criticized President Obama for writing a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, whom Hannity mockingly referred to as Obama's “new pen pal.” Hannity's criticism ignores similar letters sent by past U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush.

Hannity attacks Obama over personal letter to North Korean leader

From the December 16 edition of Fox News' Hannity:

HANNITY: President Obama promised on the campaign trail to engage our adversaries without preconditions. Well, America, in that spirit the president has a new pen pal, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. Now, according to The Washington Post, the president wrote Mr. Kim a secret letter that was delivered last week to the communist dictator by the administration's special envoy to North Korea. Now, the contents of the letter, however, remain a mystery. Continuing its proud tradition of transparency, the White House had this to say: quote, “We do not comment on private diplomatic correspondence.” I can only imagine that the president's dialogue with Mr. Kim will be just as fruitful as his exchanges with the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Bush, Clinton also wrote personal appeals to North Korean leader

AP: Bush letter to Kim Jong Il raised “possibility of normalized relations.” A December 6, 2007, Associated Press article reported, “President Bush's personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, raising the possibility of normalized relations if he fully discloses his nuclear programs by year's end, is a turnabout for a president who has labeled the communist regime part of an 'axis of evil.' ” AP further reported that the letter “reflected how U.S. policy toward the nation has shifted from the days when Bush shunned the dictator.”

AP: Clinton letter to Kim Jong-Il delivered by special envoy. A May 27, 1999, Associated Press article reported, “North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, received a letter on Wednesday from President Clinton brought by a special envoy to the isolated Communist country, the official North Korean news agency reported. The envoy, William Perry, delivered the letter through Kim Yong Nam, head of North Korea's legislative Supreme People's Assembly, according to the Korean Central News Agency, which was monitored in Seoul.”