was off. but did leave the door wide open. if and when kim jong-un chooses to engage in constructive dialogue and actions, i am waiting. reporter: he didn t need to wait long. the president s 180 comes after what trump called a warm and productive statement from north korea in a tweet, that statement praising the president saying president trump made a brave decision and his efforts to make the summit happen. and the summit is desperately needed for the improvement of the relationship. we reiterate to the u.s. we re willing to sit face-to-face at any time and in any way. when asked today if he was worried the north koreans are playing games, the president said everybody plays games. reporter: and james mattis is expressing optimism. we will give and take and trying to put together a big summit. so diplomats are still at work and from our point of view here
reporter: the fate of the summit and nuclear stand off now depend on the personalities of two scorpians in a bottle. volatile leaders with egos that need to be stroked. he s famously known to have thin skin in is man who executed one of senior officials because he fell asleep while kim jong-un was sleeping. reporter: the propaganda machine has levelled some creative ones. the mentally deranged. reporter: each man expects to be treated a certain way by those around him and set up his inner circle accordingly. he surrounds him with people who express complete loyalty. he doesn t do another all well with anyone suggesting there s a
image. that driving these negotiations. it seems to be, wolf. these days it seems that at any given moment an insult from one side puts the sum knit jeopardy and then a compliment brings them closer together. we re told we could expect that in the coming days from two combustible leaders who don t seem to mind the security of the korean peninsula could be riding on their could be riding on thaer egos. trump declares a summit with kikim jong-un could happen. maybe on june 12th. everybody plays games. you know that. reporter: the president said he is pleased with statement the north koreans put out after he cancelled the summit. pyongyang saying it appreciated the fact that president trump made a brave diecision that no president many the past has made. if you want him to do something, you pararaise him. tell him how much you appreciate hit greatness.
the other. i m sure some summit will be on and off again between times between now and the 12th. how good is u.s. intelligence when it comes to north korea and what is going on there? north korea is what we call a hard target. we get the best intelligence but the one thing about north korea through all of the discussion of summits that are on and off and everything that is going on between kim jong-un and the president, the one thing that has not changed is the assessment of north korea s desire to obtain a nuclear weapon. and to be a fully capable nuclear nation. so at this point, whether the summit happens or not from an intelligence perspective, we still see kim jong-un as someone who is a staunch adversary of the u.s. and watched very closely as a threat to the region. the president wants to have this meeting. i think he does. even in the very weird trumpian letter there were hints he there was a bit of an olive
demonstrated the absence evof a plan and strategy and expertise to develop a good strategy here. so i m concerned about. it i don t know whether the summit will happen. but if it does, the president needs to understand the history on the korean peninsula, what kind of actions the north koreans have taken in the past, where they promised to do something and then broken their word and go into this in a sober way to understand their intentions and to is a tempt to craft a diplomatic resolution of a very serious threat to our country. should there be some preconditions before this meeting takes place? well, i think for sure there ought to be preparation. what normally happens is the party will meet before the summit and map out the contours of an agreement, and apparently when the american delegation went to singapore, the north koreans didn t even show up. which is odd. but there ought to be a a plan and a lot of preparations so that when the president goes into the meeting, he unde