Trump questioned why ‘pretty Korean lady’ analyst wasn’t working on North Korea: report

President Trump questioned why a career intelligence analyst wasn’t leading negotiations with North Korea on behalf of the United States because of her Korean heritage, NBC News reported Friday.

Trump, who was meeting with the analyst as part of a briefing on a family being released by militants in Pakistan, waited until the briefing was over before questioning her where she was from.

“New York,” she replied.

Trump pressed on, asking her where her “people” are from.

{mosads}When the analyst responded that her parents were from South Korea, the president reportedly responded by asking a nearby adviser why the “pretty Korean lady” was not negotiating with North Korea’s government on behalf of the Trump administration.

The analyst, whose name was not released, is reportedly trained in hostage negotiation, not diplomacy.

NBC’s report comes a day after multiple news outlets reported that Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and several African nations as “shithole countries” during a Thursday Oval Office meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump asked, according to multiple people briefed on the meeting, before going on to question why the U.S. wasn’t admitting more immigrants from countries like Norway instead.

Trump denied saying “anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country” in a pair of tweets Friday morning, and said that while he used “tough” language in the meeting with lawmakers, “this was not the language used.”

The remarks drew criticism from Democrats, Republicans and media figures, many of whom accused the president of racism.