WATCH: Trump Says Evil North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un Must Be A ‘Pretty Smart Cookie.’ Here Are 7 Reasons He’s Wrong.

In an interview with CBS News Sunday, President Trump praised Kim Jong Un at length, calling the North Korean dictator “a smart cookie.”

“You know, I really have no comment on him. People are saying, is he sane? I have no idea,” Trump stated Sunday, adding:

A lot of people don’t like when I say it, but he was a young man of 26 or 27 when he took over from his father, when his father died. He’s dealing with obviously very tough people, in particular the generals and others. And, at a very young age, he was able to assume power. A lot of people, I’m sure, tried to take that power away, whether it was his uncle or anybody else. And he was able to do it. So, obviously, he’s a pretty smart cookie.

The word choice is disturbing. Even if Trump believes that Kim is an intelligent or cunning man, the phrase “smart cookie” is a term of endearment; it suggests a certain affinity from the speaker toward the subject.

Trump’s laudatory sentiments regarding the tyrannical leader are nothing new. At a campaign stop in January 2016, Trump affectionately called Kim “the boss.”

“Even though it is a culture, and it’s a culture thing, he goes in, he takes over, he’s the boss. It’s incredible,” said Trump.

Shortly after, Trump celebrated the young leader’s precocious temperament and “amazing” accomplishments, telling Fox News:

I mean, it’s amazing that a young guy would go over and take over. You know, you would have thought that these tough generals would have said no way this is gonna happen when the father died. So he’s gotta have something going for him, because he kept control, which is amazing for a young person to do.

For the sake of argument, let’s disregard Trump’s tone and focus in on the content. Is Kim Jong Un really that “smart”? The simple answer is no.

Here are seven reasons why Trump is wrong about the dictator of North Korea:

1. Kim Jong Un inherited his position. The 26 (or 27, depending on which Western intelligence service you listen to) year old began climbing up the ladder of power in 2009 when he was appointed to the state’s National Defense Commission. “The next year, he was promoted to the rank of four-star general and was named vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and of the Central Military Commission,” explains ABC News. “When Kim Jong-Il died in December 2011, Kim Jong-Un was placed at the head of the party, the state and the army within a matter of weeks.”

It was his grandfather, not Kim Jong Un, who first took control of the state. By simply being born, Kim was guaranteed a spot at the highest levels of North Korean power.

2. The only reason Kim Jong Un now enjoys power as Supreme Leader is because his oldest half-brother lost favor in the eyes of his father. As the third youngest son of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il, Kim Jong Un didn’t initially have claim to the top spot in the North Korean government. But that all changed when de facto regime successor Kim Jong Nam, Kim’s half brother, pushed for state reform. It all came to a head in 2001 when the Western-minded son was caught with a fake passport on his way to visit Tokyo Disneyland. The incident reportedly embarrassed Kim Jong-Il, cementing his decision to choose a different successor for the regime.

3. Kim Jong Un may have killed his half-brother anyway. Kim Jong Nam was poisoned by two female assassins at an airport in Kuala Lumpur in mid-February. Both US and South Korean intelligence services believe that the Kim regime was behind the hit. Before his untimely death, Kim Jong Nam was living in exile with his family in Macau. He had no plans to oppose his brother; he was not considered a threat to the regime. In fact, he’s been relatively silent since Kim Jong Un first assumed power.

4. Kim Jong Un is so paranoid that he even killed his uncle in cold blood. The North Korean dictator had his uncle Jang Song Thaek arrested and executed for treachery in 2013, without any hard evidence that he was planning a coup. Kim Jong Un “has reportedly executed more than 300 people, including at least 140 senior officials, since he came to power in 2011,” according to US News and World Report.

5. Kim Jong Un has run his country into the ground. Just look at North Korea’s economy. It’s virtually non-existent. Under the banner of revolutionary communism, Pyongyang has all but decimated private industry. The country’s people are starving, thanks to the corrupt rule of the Kim dynasty.

6. The Kim regime is entirely dependent on China. A “smart cookie” wouldn’t be subject to the whims of a more powerful country, would he? China supplies the hermit kingdom with fuel, literally. Without energy, North Korea cannot survive. To the chagrin of Kim Jong Un, China seems to be distancing itself from North Korea, largely due to the regime’s deranged rantings.

According to the Straits Times’ China bureau chief Goh Sui Noi, China is prepared to change its trade relationship with the isolated Korean country.

“The shift has been evident in recent months, in Beijing’s decision to back heavier sanctions against Pyongyang by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the steps it took to more fully implement existing sanctions. That is significant because China had in the past expressed ‘reservations over the sanctions and even objected to some of them,’ said security analyst Wang Xiangsui of Beihang University,” asserts Noi, adding:

Security analyst Li Mingjiang of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University summed up the change as one of emphasis. Whereas in the past, Beijing placed greater emphasis on regime survival in Pyongyang and stable relations with its close neighbour and less on denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, it now places equal emphasis on the two, he said.

Distancing itself from Pyongyang even further, China appears poised to cut energy exports to North Korea, a move that would have a devastating impact on the hermit kingdom’s economy. With economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the international community alienating North Korea, the communist regime largely relies on China for energy and commodities. That may soon change.

As the Nikkei Asian Review notes, “North Korea relies almost entirely on China for oil. The Asian giant shipped about 500,000 tons of crude to the North each year until 2013, according to the Chinese customs agency. Bilateral ties cooled that year after Pyongyang carried out its third nuclear test, and exports officially have remained at zero since 2014. But China is believed to still provide crude to North Korea off the books. A complete freeze would impact the North Korean economy.”

7. North Korea’s threats are mostly hollow. Mostly. The hermit kingdom doesn’t have the skills or resources necessary to produce nuclear warheads capable of reaching the United States, no matter how much Kim Jong Un and his propagandists scream and holler. In fact, North Korea’s last few missile tests have failed miserably. Some test missiles even exploded before taking off. Others exploded shortly after they were fired. That doesn’t mean however that North Korea doesn’t have the technology to intimidate and even terrorize US allies in the region. “After five nuclear tests in a decade, North Korea has already shown that it poses a nuclear threat to South Korea and Japan, roughly 80,000 American soldiers stationed in those countries, and to China, its nominal ally,” notes The Guardian. “In February, North Korea fired a medium-range missile into the Sea of Japan, traveling about 300 miles. North Korea has also developed a missile with an estimated range of 2,200 miles, almost halfway to Hawaii, but so far struggled to launch it.”

To be clear, North Korea does possess short-range missile capabilities. It may possess medium range missile capabilities. Both missiles are detectable with U.S. and allied satellites.

When President Trump moved the USS Carl Vinson’s navy strike group near the Korean Peninsula, North Korean state propagandists went into overdrive to threaten the United States and its interests. The erratic messaging betrayed the fact that the regime was scared; America may have finally called its bluff. If doubling-down on fear-mongering and hollow threats and beating the drums of war in the face of the world’s most powerful and lethal navy is “smart,” then Imperial Japan must have been brilliant. After all, look what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.