PARKERSBURG — The worst thing to happen from a meeting between the president and the leader of North Korea would be a legitimization of the rogue regime, a West Virginia congressman said Friday.

Kim Jong Un and his father before him devastated North Korea, which once was the industrial powerhouse in the Korean peninsula, Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., said.

“I don’t want to legitimize Un’s position in the world,” McKinley said.

McKinley was in Parkersburg speaking with businessmen and health care representatives, particularly over the opioid epidemic in West Virginia and the lack of federal funding received here to combat and treat the addiction.

President Trump this week announced he will meet with Kim by May. Trump has had a war of words with Kim since becoming president, calling him “little rocket man” and saying his nuclear button was bigger than Kim’s.

However, Kim has threatened it would use atomic bombs upon the United States.

“He’s a bad actor” on the world stage, McKinley said. “His threats go too far.”

The meeting should not be with the highest-level official of the U.S. government, said McKinley. He preferred someone else rather than the president meet with Kim, perhaps an ambassador or Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Kim is nowhere near the level of the president of the United States, McKinley said.

“They’re not peers,” he said.

Trump this week also imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, but exempted Canada and Mexico, which McKinley said he supports. Provisions should be made for allies, but there are inconsistencies, he said.

New England buys subsidized power from Canada, but tariffs will target steel imports from China, McKinley said.

“But it’s not OK to buy Chinese steel,” he said. “What’s the difference?”

It’s too early to tell what impact the tariffs will have, he said.

“The ink is barely dry on what he has done,” McKinley said.

On other issues, McKinley said he is disturbed the state of West Virginia hasn’t received a larger portion of federal funding to combat opioid addiction. West Virginia has the highest death rates in the nation from overdoses.

“West Virginia is the epicenter of the problem,” McKinley said.

Earlier this week, the Family Research Council Action gave McKinley the True Blue award for voting 100 percent on issues favored by the council. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the Family Research Council as an active anti-LGBTQ hate group.

Fairness West Virginia, an organization that supports the fair and equal treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents, said McKinley should return the award.

“As a member of the United States Congress who represents thousands of LGBTQ West Virginians, Rep. McKinley should return the award and categorically reject this endorsement from a hate group whose president made headlines last year for failing to report a sexual assault to authorities,” Fairness West Virginia Executive Director Andrew Schneider told The News and Sentinel. “The Family Research Council is notorious for defaming the LGBTQ community and opposing even the most basic equality measures. Fairness West Virginia works with elected leaders from both parties to help them understand and address the needs of this marginalized community, and we stand ready to work with Rep. McKinley going forward.”

McKinley said he would not return the award for voting on issues supported by his constituency.

“I’m not going to reject that,” he said.

McKinley was one of 245 members of Congress who scored 100 percent for votes cast last year, Family Research Council said.

The organization’s scorecard was based on votes on: no taxpayer funding for abortion; disapproval of President Obama’s Health and Human Services’ Title X rule; repeal and replace of the Affordable Care Act; confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court; blocking funding for sex-reassignment surgeries in the Department of Defense; budget autonomy; reproductive health non-discrimination amendment; Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act; Independent Payment Advisory Board repeal; confirmation of Amy Barrett to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals; and the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act.

“Congressman McKinley has been attacked for his conservative, pro-family voting record by organizations relying upon the anti-Christian, leftist Southern Poverty Law Center, which has been linked in federal court to domestic terrorism. The SPLC, a once liberal, but credible organization, now works to undermine conservative values and smears Christian organizations. In 2012, a shooter entered the Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, D.C., to ‘kill as many as possible’ because SPLC had listed FRC on its ‘hate map,’ and the killer-to-be relied on SPLC’s website to identify targets, according to his sworn testimony,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said in a statement to The News and Sentinel. “The SPLC continues to list on its website people such as House Majority Whip Steve Scalise who was shot by James T. Hodgkinson who ‘liked’ SPLC’s Facebook page. The SPLC has denigrated conservative leaders like Dr. Ben Carson and President Trump. I believe voters would rather see elections be about the issues they care about than the SPLC’s attacks on those with whom they disagree.”