Noem publisher removing North Korea leader meeting reference from book
The publisher of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s (R) upcoming book said it will be removing an anecdote about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from reprints at her request.
Noem’s book has faced scrutiny in recent days for including the anecdote, which describes her meeting the North Korean leader while traveling during her days in Congress. After multiple reports raised questions about its accuracy, a spokesperson for her office said Kim “was included in a list of world leaders and shouldn’t have been.”
Center Street, the publisher for Noem and other conservative politicians, said on Sunday that it will be removing the passage about Kim from reprints of the book, “No Going Back,” at the request of the governor. It will also remove the passage “as soon as technically possible” from the ebook and audiobook editions.
The publisher referred any further questions to Noem on the issue.
Noem said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that she addressed the issue in her book as soon as it was brought to her attention but did not directly say whether she met Kim or not.
“You know, as soon as this was brought to my attention, I certainly made some changes and looked at this passage, and I’ve met with many, many world leaders. I’ve traveled around the world. As soon as it was brought to my attention, we went forward and have made some edits,” Noem told host Margaret Brennan when asked if she ever met Kim.
She added that she has met with “many world leaders,” but again did not say whether she met Kim. While Noem had visited China as part of her time on the House Armed Services Committee in 2014, there were no reports of Kim leaving North Korea until 2018, when Noem was campaigning for governor, The Dakota Scout noted.
The book reportedly described an instance in which she met with Kim while she was traveling.
“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),” she wrote in the book that was obtained by numerous outlets.
The Kim anecdote is not the only controversy facing the GOP vice presidential hopeful in connection to her forthcoming book, which is slated to be released Tuesday. Noem has sparked criticism for also including a detailed story about how she shot and killed her 14-month-old dog, “Cricket.”
She has repeatedly defended herself over the story, saying that she killed the dog to protect her children.