was legitimization by the united states and acknowledgment by the united states essentially of equal status, of face, prestige, respect. that s hugely important for kim jong-un domestically. and if he can achieve that without having to give up his nuclear weapons in the near term, which i think is most likely, then i would see that as a big victory for kim jong-un. but this the long run, in terms of whether or not north korea s actually going to get rid of its weapons, whether we re going to see a deeper political change, i think the honest answer is we simply don t know. it depends on the summit. and that of course depends on the mercurial personality of donald trump. yeah, questionable. was mike, i want to ask you about the sudden and dramatic transformation of kim jong-unet jong-unette. it was just last year he was described as a tyrant, murder
really following up on what governor richardson says that north korea has already gotten a lot of concessions like the very fact that this summit is being held. what do you think kim wants out of this day or so in singapore? certainly kim wants the photographs of him shaking hands with president trump because that s legitimization and even more important that means he solidifies role at home. we are going to see pictures of trump and kim for decades in north korea. so, you know, president trump gives up a lot of leverage as soon as he shakes hand with kim and that means if he doesn t get firm commitments to dismantle the weapon s programs, then we are going to be working uphill. we could do that because we have a lot of leverage but nonetheless puts kim in the driver s seat at least for a little while. chris: governor richardson, you have been to north korea on 8 times on missions back in 2005, you met with kim s father kim
dismantle nuclear weapon s program but certainly doesn t look like that way, president trump and secretary of state pompeo have been lowering expectations saying it s really a meet and greet, the first of the beginning of summits an long process. heather: we heard that president trump is going to invite kim jong un to mar-a-lago, we heard that kim jong un has personally invited president trump to come to pyongyang, so obviously they re anticipating this and moving forward? certainly. one thing that kim jong un wants legitimization. heather: i wanted to ask you that. they ll be showing those photographs as long as kim jong un is the ruler. that is an important thing. now we ve given that up. we have to get something in return. question, are we going to get that now or are we going to get it later. if we get it later, the problem is that we ve handed him a victory which means we now have less leverage because he wants less from us.
really following up on what governor richardson says that north korea has already gotten a lot of concessions like the very fact that this summit is being held. what do you think kim wants out of this day or so in singapore? certainly kim wants the photographs of him shaking hands with president trump because that s legitimization and even more important that means he solidifies role at home. we are going to see pictures of trump and kim for decades in north korea. so, you know, president trump gives up a lot of leverage as soon as he shakes hand with kim and that means if he doesn t get firm commitments to dismantle the weapon s programs, then we are going to be working uphill. we could do that because we have a lot of leverage but nonetheless puts kim in the driver s seat at least for a little while. chris: governor richardson, you have been to north korea on 8 times on missions back in 2005, you met with kim s father kim
really following up on what governor richardson says that north korea has already gotten a lot of concessions like very fact that this summit is being held. what do you think kim wants out of this day or so in singapore? certainly kim wants the photographs of him shaking hands with president trump because that s legitimization and even more important that means he solidifies role at home. we are going to see pictures of trump and kim for decades in north korea. so, you know, president trump gives up a lot of leverage as soon as he shakes hand with kim and that means if he doesn t get firm commitments to dismantle the weapon s programs, then we are going to working uphill. we could do that because we have a lot of leverage but nonetheless puts kim in the driver s seat at least for a little while. chris: governor richardson, you have been to north korea on 8 times on missions back in 2005, you met with kim s father kim