kore koreans, and this is something that the president is clearly unhappy with. the way we move forward is what we are seeing, south korean president moon jae in who is trying to keep it together, whether it is call ing the emergency meeting before the president could win a nobel peace prize for this, and he is trying to be the negotiator here. and the other interesting thing that i will point out for you is the letter that the president sent which is the key line of the only dialogue that really matters here is between you and me here, and he is saying that between them, him and kim jong-un. and he saying that you are unhappy with people like john bolton and mike pence, and it is you and me here, and that is the president trying to step forward as the ultimate decision maker in all of this. the president said that he had a win by getting the three hostages again out of north korea, and another headline that came in overnight is the release of a prisoner from venezuela.
kore koreans. they are squirrely to deal with. anybody that thinks it s anything but a roller coaster is kind of nuts. diplomatic process, runs its course. the important thing not whats in negotiation but the underlying strategy protecting u.s. interests, maximum pressure. the important thing the president keep maximum pressure on nuclear deterrence, sanctions, keeps those in place until north korea is no longer a threat to the united states. we ve also heard from john bolton. the national security advisers has been telling some of his colleagues, according to the washington post, that if the summit he doesn t trust the summit will not go well. i mean, he certainly isn t alone in thinking you can t trust the north koreans nor can you trust kim jong-un. whatever even if they have the meeting and come to some quote/unquote meeting of the minds, what s to say they ll follow through with it? is john bolton, if, indeed, he is concerned about that, right? a legitimate concern. the
here. he said the talks with the north kore koreans and south koreans. she is calm and she doesn t speak very much. when she does, she is accurate in her words. it was clear she was speaking for her brother kim jong un. and talking about whether the u.s. is left on the sideline. they are still in tandem. thank you, paula. let s bring in josh roggin. good morning. you are the guy who broke the story. north korean diplomacy news. united states potentially could sit down with the north koreans without any pre-conditions? i spent five days in japan and south korea with vice president pence. he was sending a clear message about the brutality of the north
about the increasing rhetoric, particularly from washington, about north korea s actions and claiming south korea is engaged in appeasement and china is embarrassed. these are words that tend to heighten concerns and heighten tensions as opposed to limiting them. putin has said that concentrating on the efforts to try to pressure the north to get rid of its nuclear program, he says it s misguided and futile. is he right? i don t think so. i think we have to continue to press to get the north koreans to abandon their pursuit of nuclear weapons. any ability of the north to continue to maintain these weapons i think would hold at risk what we consider important and south korea and japan and if they could hit the united states, that s going to be a huge program going forward. they have massively accelerate third program here in the last several weeks and months. this is something that the international community has to address. stay with me. i want to go to south korea and
are open. that tweet from president trump suggests that he is still open to discussions with china. again, it s back to the same issue, which is how what move to make. how do you control the north koreans? keep in mind, that the relationship between china and north korea, while they are allies, has its own tensions. the leader of north korea has never met, for example, with the president of china, president xi, who is here. there are those analysts who suggest that it is not as simple as saying china can change the situation. some irony though, that the leader of russia, president putin, is positioning himself, if you like, as the most reliable player in all of this. that is interesting. keir simmons, thank you for that. let s bring in steve clemmons, also james acton. steve, first to you.