South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem continued to claim Sunday that she visited North Korea — and cited a trip to South Korean’s demilitarized zone (DMZ) as proof.
Noem, 52, has been in hot water for a passage in her forthcoming book in which she recounted staring down North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un — a tale she has since said she’ll correct.
Margaret Brennan, the moderator of CBS “Face the Nation,” challenged her Sunday on a claim she also visited the famously isolated Hermit Kingdom, saying “You never went there.”
Noem responded: “Yes, I have. I’ve been there.”
She added: “I went to the DMZ. And there are details in this book that talk about going to the DMZ and specifics that I’m willing to share.”
The DMZ is a roughly 160-mile-long buffer zone that separates North and South Korea, fortified heavily with military hardware and troops on both sides.
Tourists can gaze into North Korea from the DMZ in South Korea.
But very few American politicians have actually visited the pariah state of North Korea, which is notorious for human rights abuses.
Back in 2019, former President Donald Trump took 20 steps over from the DMZ and became the first sitting commander-in-chief to enter North Korea.
Last year, a bipartisan delegation from Congress, led by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) visited the Korean DMZ — but did not cross into North Korea.
The late former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) is also known to have made several visits to the US adversary in the past as an informal negotiator for the US.
There is certainly proof that Noem was at the South Korean side of the DMZ when she was serving in the US House.
One of Noem’s former colleagues, former Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) posted an image on social media of a 2014 visit.
Not long after, he posted a selfie with Noem at the Great Wall of China.
Noem served on the House Armed Services Committee from 2013 to 2015.
Last week it emerged from early copies of her forthcoming book, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” that she dubiously claimed to have met with “North Korean President Kim Jong Un.”
“I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un,” she wrote. “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).”
A spokesperson for Noem later explained that there had been “two small errors” in her upcoming book that were then communicated to the “ghostwriter and editor.”
But on Sunday, Noem was evasive about the mistake when Brennan asserted, “You did not meet with Kim Jong Un.”
“No, I’ve met with many, many world leaders, many world leaders,” she replied.
“I’m not going to talk about my specific meetings with world leaders. I’m just not going to do that,” Noem went on.
“This anecdote shouldn’t have been in the book and as soon as it was brought to my attention, I made sure that — that was adjusted.”
At one point, Brennan pressed the South Dakota governor about how she didn’t catch the error in her book while recording audio for it.
“I took action to make sure that it was [corrected],” Noem stressed.
Her upcoming memoir is set to hit bookshelves on Tuesday.
Noem had been widely speculated as a contender to be Trump’s vice president pick, but recently, several confidants close to the former president have poured cold water on that.
