Donald Trump has received an unusual endorsement from North Korea, which on Tuesday hailed the New York billionaire as a "wise politician" and the right choice over "thick-headed Hillary" for US voters.
In a column in state newspaper DPRK Today, Trump was described as a "prescient presidential candidate" who can liberate Americans. It criticised the most likely Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton over her proposal to apply Iranian-style sanctions to resolve the nuclear weapons fears on the Korean peninsula.
In contrast Trump told Reuters he was prepared to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program, and that China should also help solve the problem.
North Korea, known officially as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is under UN sanctions after it carried out nuclear tests.
DPRK Today also said Trump's suggestion that the US should pull its troops from South Korea until Seoul pays more was the way to achieve Korean unification.
"It turns out that Trump is not the rough-talking, screwy, ignorant candidate they say he is, but is actually a wise politician and a prescient presidential candidate," said the column, written by a China-based Korean scholar identified as Han Yong Muk.
DPRK Today is among a handful of news sites run by the isolated North, although its content is not always handled by the main state-run media.
It said promising to resolve issues on the Korean peninsula through "negotiations and not war" was the best option for America, which it said is "living every minute and second on pins and needles in fear of a nuclear strike" by North Korea.
The North has for years called for the withdrawal of US troops from the South as the first step toward peace on the Korean peninsula and demanded Washington sign a peace treaty to replace the truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
Its frequently strident rhetoric also often threatens nuclear strikes against South Korea and the United States.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
