kim had agreed to denuclearization which is a key point in all of this. has he changed his stance now? he may never have really changed his stance in the sense he never really did agree to denuclearization despite the fact he was saying it. the dramatic thing that took place here after the may 8th meeting with president xi he stopped talking about denuclearization and started talking down what was taking place. china had some impact on him. the summit got canceled by the president because he thought kim jong-un was changing his policy, rightfully so. now we re back moving towards a summit largely because the north koreans are trying to convince us that one, they want to have the summit and two, they are willing to make some accommodations to us. but if you listen closely to what secretary pompeo said. he said he made big progress. he said challenges and differences remain.
many service members left their own homes and families to plunge out of helicopters, wade through perilous waters, care for the wounded and rescue the stranded, of which there were many. your selfless courage has earned the gratitude of our nation. with this ceremony we proudly pass the helm of the united states coast guard to the man who oversaw those emergency operations, admiral carl schultz. admiral. stand up, admiral. [cheering and applause] as commander of the coast guard, atlantic area, admiral schultz took responsibility for the coast guard response across the gulf coast, the atlantic and the caribbean.
there are challenges and difficulties, things that can t be bridged. our mission is to bridge them so we can achieve this historic outcome. let s go to john roberts. good morning. there is a chance we may hear more from the president about north korea at the coast guard change of command. clearly coast guard is homeland security, north korea fits into homeland and national security as well. he has the big meeting, the whole thing begins at 1:00 this afternoon. the president will be meeting with mike pompeo, the secretary of state first, and then the way it will probably happen after that is that pompeo will bring in kim yong chol, the man he has been meeting with the last couple days. kim yong chol will hand the letter from kim jong-un and we ll see where it goes from there. this meeting likely will not take place in the overal office. they re reserved for dignitaries who are allies of the united states, sometimes adversaries but north korea falls into a different category. it is
happen in a room other than the oval office. you see pictures of mike pompeo together with kim yong chol. they spent and evening and morning together and pompeo said things went very well. listen here. we ve made real progress in the last 72 hours towards setting the conditions. the conditions are putting president trump and chairman kim jong-un in a place where we think there could be real progress made by the two of them meeting. it does no good if there is a place of no real opportunity. no official announcement the summit is back on. the white house is proceeding as if it is and that it will happen june 12. the white house has two teams in the east asia region. one in singapore, one at the dmz and making good progress toward a summit. an interesting road to get here. the president had the strident language, a war of words with kim jong-un that a lot of
critics said they thought would ignite a nuclear war. the president called me when i was in hanoi last november and said john, all these critics saying i want to start a nuclear war, what i m really trying to do is prevent a nuclear war. after a combination of that strong rhetoric and maximum pressure with sanctions, north korea looks like it is not a direct route to the negotiating table at this moment. the secretary of state telling kim yong chol yesterday that north korea has a lot to gain if it makes a deem with the president tweeting potus has made it clear if kim jong-un denuclearizes there is a clear path. the president is under no illusions that the thing could fall apart. the last time a high ranking north korean official was at the white house was 2,000. vice marshall to kim jong il back in those days.