welcome back. yesterday, russia and china proposed that the u.n. security council lift some sanctions on north korea. according to reuters, the move focuses in part on lifting the ban on north korean exports which includes statues, seafood and textiles but the u.s. maintained that now was not the time to consider lifting the sanctions, citing north korea s continued missile tests, while russia reportedly explained that the proposal was more of a humanitarian issue, the u.s., britain and france insist that u.n. sanctions not be lifted until north korea denuclearizes, which they had said over and over again they plan not to do. president trump and north korean leader kim jong-un have met three september times but so far have failed to reach a deal on the reclusive country s nuclear program. joining us on the set, what a pleasure, nbc news national correspondent keir simmons. another day, another missile test. north korea calling it a crucial test and a long-range rocket
not the time to consider lifting the sanctions citing the continued missile tests. while russia property reporteex more a hue mabtarian issue are the they insist that u.n. sanctions not be lifted until north korea denuclearizes. keir. what this is is the playing out of what we talked about is the great power competition that we re seeing in the is russia and china against the united states. you can think of north korea if you like as the kid in the school yard who s smaller than everybody else but is good at getting the big kids to fight with each other. that s really the role that north korea is playing. the chinese and the russians do not want to see north korean getting back into a huge standoff with the u.s. the way that they did and it looked as if there might be a war which would be so devastating for the korean peninsula. chinese and russians don t want to see that, but they also in a confrontation with the u.s. and snorn playi
secretary pompeo certainly has tried to bring a lot of swagger to the state department, but i think more so than that, it s his positions that north korea is opposing. the north koreans recognize that pompeo has been very hard line about negotiations. pompeo has said, basically, that they will not provide sanctions relief until north korea denuclearizes. reporter: it s not like conk congress doesn t have his own top diplomat who runs his counterparts the right way. kim yong-chol, who has often been kim s point man with the trump team, is said to be so arrogant and abrasive as a negotiator that according to north korean leadership watch he once told south korean diplomats, quote, do you have another briefcase with you? maybe you have another briefcase of proposals. he s a character straight out of central casting when it comes to being the tough hard-nosed north korean negotiator. if i were kim jong-un, kim yong-chol is precisely the guy i would want at the table dealing with th
that? so preparation actually does matter. it s the relationship theory of diplomacy. we ll sit down at a table, the chemistry is good, we ll agree and everything will be fine. i think to your point it will be much, much more complicated than that. one thing the president noted which struck me was he said the sanctions will remain until north korea denuclearizes. i still don t understand how the white house plans to close this loop. what do you give north korea as the right thing is to denuclearize? if you re going to give back economic or military or food aid, what are you getting in exchange if a nuclear conversation is going to take years and years and years. the north korea summit in the news, the g7 in the news. china has some democrats and republica
korea. he said he hasn t done a lot of preparation because it doesn t need a lot of preparation. it s not a question of preparation. that s a quote from the president saying it s mainly about can he build a relationship and build trust. that might alarm some people watching this summit. this will make the conservatives a bit more happy. the president said we cannot take the sanctions off until north korea denuclearizes. we ve been talking about the trade meeting with the prime minister of japan today and meetings in canada tomorrow and the summit next week. he said it s all about attitude. it s not all about attitude. this is a complex meeting he s going into which you said he doesn you heard him say he doesn t need to prepare for. he said what was a pre-condition to this meeting was they would have to be willing to denuclearize. this is about getting to know