contributor. good morning to you. i was thinking about this when the president made the offhanded comment during the iran nuclear decision yesterday when he broke the news that pompeo was back in north korea. and my feeling was if he does not come home with these americans, that is a wide open question mark at that point. but the fact that it is happening right now tells us that the summit plan with kim is still on track and this is a mission that was set in motion some time ago and at the moment it is going to happen. whatever comes after that we ll see and what happens at that point. but this is a major accomplishment. it is awesome news for these three americans. and it shows us that the track and the path is still set, david. that s my observation. one of the key takeaways from this must be that peace through strength works. that s what this president is
mike pence out with a statement a moment ago. it reads, the important aspect of this statement. while our administration is encouraged that north korea freed these innocent hostages we won t let off the pressure until we achieve full denuclearization. this is a critical point. in addition sarah sanders said the following. president trump appreciates kim jong-un s gesture. they were able to walk on the plane without assistance. all americans look forward to seeing them reunited with their loved ones. marc thiessen is on stand by and steven hayes. gina haspel is about to give her opening statements. from japan back to washington right after this.
jong-un. however, ahead of the historic summit with the north korean leader, we know he ll be meeting with south korean president moon jae-in at the white house on may 22nd. meanwhile, the status of the americans in north korea is still unclear. president trump hinted they may be released there soon. you ll remember giuliani said midweek that they were going to be released on thursday. cnn international correspondent alexandra field is live in seoul. what do we know about the summit? reporter: you heard the president say a date and time has been set. it isn t clear when he ll reveal what the location is. certainly the administration has suggested that they would look at the dmz. they threw some weight behind the idea of doing it there, that would be an optimal place from the optics perspective. there s also been talk about hosting this summit in singapore, a more neutral location. again, the announcement has not yet been made. still the plans for the summit are continuing forward.
i mean, listen, we knew in a kind of funny way when he sent sean spicer out to make a fool of himself and say it was the biggest inaugural crowd. we now know without any shadow of a doubt that the president will say whatever is in his interest at that moment and has no regard for the truth. so she knows this. so, going out and vouching for that again makes her complicit in the lie. so, i think she s in a very tough situation. it is a very tough job. i have sympathy for her or anyone who does the job, but going forward, she has to make clear that she s just not going to carry his water anymore. meantime, we have rudy giuliani, who has now come out as a new messenger of this administration, even though he s not technically part of the administration, because he s outside counsel, but he s been talking about everything from stormy daniels to the russia probe to north korea and the people who are detained, americans in north korea who are detained. again, he s not part of the white house
while donald trump was president. when it comes to north korea, i think could you also look at otto warmbier who was detained during a previous administration, as was one of the current detainees, that would reflect the president s comments that he made. otto warmbier, who returned to the u.s. in a vegetative state and died weeks later. where does that leave things with the current american prisoners. that is the most important thing after all. paula, do we know anything concrete about the current status of the three americans in north korea? anderson, what we know is from officials who are actually dealing with this ongoing negotiation, and they say that the release of the three detainees is imminent. they don t give any more specific timing than that. the word they use is imminent. they also say this has been months in the making. the north korean foreign minister went to sweden back in march.