hints about the good numbers before the markets open, breaking decades after protocol and giving traders an edge. and canada. president trump imposes steep tariffs s on imports causing a split with some of his closest allies and leaders of his own party by blaming close friends like canada for a trade imbalance. is he setting off a trade war? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." breaking news. a blockbuster announcement from president trump saying the june 12th summit with kim jong-un will take place as originally scheduled in singapore. that follows an extraordinary white house meeting with a top aide to the north korean dictator. the president called the summit the start of a process which he hopes will be very successful, his words. i'll speak with a congressman of the foreign affairs and judiciary committees. and our specialists are standing by with full coverage. straight to the breaking news. our chief white house correspondent jim acosta is joining us. a risky turn of events. take us through it all. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. they can go back to minting those summit coins. president trump all smiles announcing the summit is back on with kim jong-un. the question is whether the president is giving the north koreans exactly what they want, a big, showy summit with the president delivering not much of anything and republicans voicing that concern tonight. after meeting more than an hour with the north korean envoy carrying a letter from dictator kim jong-un, president trump emerged from the oval office and declared the singapore summit he canceled last week back on. >> it's a getting to know you meeting plus. we'll see where it leads, but we're going to -- june 12th we'll be in singapore. it will be a beginning. i don't say and never have said it happens in one meeting. you're talking about years of hostility. >> reporter: the president is already making it clear he's not expecting to sign on to an agreement in singapore that will guarantee north korea gives up its nuclear arsenal. still the president signaled he is taking the pressure off the regime. >> i don't want to use the term maximum pressure anymore because i don't want to use that term because we're getting along. you see the relationship. we're getting along. it's not a question of maximum pressure. why would i do that when we're talking so nicely? >> reporter: there were some conflicting comments from the president, who described the letter from kim jong-un as nice and interesting. >> letter was given to me by kim jong-un and that letter was a very nice letter. oh, would you like to see what's in that letter. how much? how much? how much? >> can you give us a flavor of the letter? >> it was a very interesting letter. >> reporter: then he revealed he hadn't read it. >> i didn't open it. i didn't open it in front of the director. i said would you want me to open it? he said you can read it later. i may be in for a big surprise, folks. >> reporter: some are urging caution. >> if it's too important for you to get it and the details become less significant, you could get snookered. and i think the president is fully aware of that as he goes in, assuming this meet og cing occurs. >> reporter: still, the upcoming summit as lowered tensions between the u.s. and north korea at least rhetorically. >> they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. >> reporter: for the moment, the name-calling has stopped. >> rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. >> reporter: but reaching an actual agreement that leads to a breakthrough will take more than talk. former president bill clinton chased a deal with north korea through the '90s, but it didn't last. >> this agreement remits the first step on the road to a nuclear-free korean peninsula. it does not rely on trust. >> reporter: mr. trump left for camp david for the weekend without the first lady but with his children, don jr., tiffany, and ivanka. before leaving for the weekend, he offered to continue talking with the leaders of canada and mexico after slapping tariffs on steel and aluminum imports coming in from those countries. >> i love canada, i love mexico, love them. >> reporter: canada's prime minister all but described the tariffs as betrayal. >> these tariffs are an affront to the long-standing security partnership between canada and the united states and in particular an affront to the thousands of canadians who have fought and died alongside their american brothers in arms. >> reporter: the white house did not offer an explanation for why the first lady was not traveling to camp david this weekend since her medical procedure last month. she's largely been out of the public eye. that has lasted for about three weeks. as for the letter, the president told the reporters he did not read it, but the white house did get back to us and said the president did read the letter after talking to the press and before leaving the white house. no word whether he was surprised when he read it. >> jim acosta at the white house. let's dig deeper. our senior diplomatic correspondent michelle kosinski is joining us from the state department and will ripley joins us from singapore, where the summit will be taking place in just 11 days. michelle, first to you. behind the scenes, what are you hearing? what happened? how is this summit now back on track? >> the details of the meeting, that conversation, we don't know at this point. you have to assume that something made the president decide that a trump/kim summit was going to be successful, but it seems like the definition of what is successful has changed vastly between now and just two days ago. i mean, now the president is talking about it being the very beginning of a long process. but two nights ago, it was wednesday night, we sat down with a senior state department official who told us in order for a summit to be successful, the north koreans have to do things that they have not done before. and this is a direct quote, wolf. he said, between now and if we're going to have a summit, they're going to have to make clear what they're willing to do. we need action. yeah. we need a commitment. we're looking for something historic. we're looking for something that has never been done before. so the question is did they get some kind of big commitment from north korea at these meetings over the last couple days? if they have, nobody is willing to say it, and if they haven't, why has the requirement now changed before that summit can take place? and we asked the state department that point-blank. have you got a commitment and why has your requirement possibly now changed? and so far we've heard silence, wolf. >> will, you've been to north korea on several occasions. and you know there are ways. do you think president trump's vip treatment of north korea's number two man made an impression, and will it be lasting? >> reporter: well, yes. certainly, you know, kim yong chol getting a fancy dinner new york, getting permission to travel to washington to deliver that letter, a letter considered the highest form of communication, the most respectful way to communicate with another world leader, so a letter from kim jong-un to president trump is a big deal for the north koreans. but as far as how this meet willing go in singapore, it's an open question, wolf, about what they're going to be able to achieve, given the fact that north korean definition of denuclearization is a longer, more drawn-out process similar to what the cheese have proposed, step-by-step actions take within the united states and north korea simultaneously over a period of years as opposed to this drastic, you know, denuclearization in a period of months, shipping out all of north korea's nuclear warheads that has been talked about and kind of thrown out there as one possibility. >> will, you err there in siare singapore right now. they need a venue and security. what are you seeing on the ground? >> reporter: so we know that there is a north korean delegation here along with an american delegation. they are handling logistics, trying to finalize things like where the summit will happen, how long is it going to take place, you know, could it be over one day, could it go a number of days, what are the optics going to be like. and then they're still having discussions about how the structure will be and what will be on the agenda. we know for president trump himself human rights not going to be on the agenda. they're focusing on denuclearization here in singapore and perhaps hopes are among administration officials after they tackle that issue, what which won't be easy, then the other concerns the world has about north korea could gradually come to light. it will certainly be a busy 11 days in singapore. it will argueably be hosting th political geopolitical summit of the century. >> michelle, what else are you hearing from your sources at the state department and elsewhere? >> nobody is hearing much as to what happened inside this meeting, but there are real doubts among our sources that the u.s. and north korea are anywhere near on the same page as to what denuclearization is. we have seen some bending on the u.s. side as to what they're willing, obviously, to have north korea present before a summit can take place. also the u.s. has offered some security assurance. that's what we believe to be north korea's demands are. they've even said from president trump himself saying maybe it could be a phased-in approach. so there's very little indication of how much of that gap was bridged before the president suddenly says today, okay, we are having the summit. you know, does he want to have the summit, to have the summit, and to have that be a historic event? or are they really getting some kind of gesture and commitment that shows that north korea really is willing to denuclearize? i think that's going to be debated up until the very day of this summit, wolf. >> michelle kosinski and will ripley, guys, thanks very much. both of you will be very busy in the next several days. joining us now, democratic congressman from rhode island, a member of the foreign affairs and judiciary committees. congressman, thanks for joining us. did the president make the right call to not only invite kim yong chol to the white house today to have a lengthy hour-long meeting in the oval office, but also make this a very public spectacle in front of all the tv cameras on the lawn for not only people in the united states but for the whole world to see? >> well, i think we don't know the answer to that question until the summit takes place, if it does, in fact, take place. there's no question this president is a master of the theater, and he's played this like a television show. "the new york times" is describing it as cliffhanger. everyone is kind of waiting for next episode. the only problem is this is deadly serious consequences. the president should be approaching this with a lot of somberness. we know the north koreans have on two prior occasions done exactly the same thing, made promises they intended, take certain actions, we relieve some of the sanctions and while they were doing that they were engaging in serious advancement of their program. so when i heard the president said why should i keep the pressure on, they're being very nice, we should not take the north koreans at their word, and the president i'm concerned wants this summit more than the north koreans need it. and i think we can't allow that to be the case. kit not be th it cannot be that the u.s. or the u.s. president wants this for the theater because he likes the spectacle of it without producing real results that be delu denucleari denuclearize the korean peninsula. i think all of us hope it's a success, although it's hard to imagine based on the past behavior of the north koreans and the lack of preparation of this president that it will be, but, you know, we'll have to wait and see. >> you did see, congressman, those historic images of the two men on the south lawn of the white house today. they seemed to be having a pretty warm exchange. if that's what it takes to get this summit on track, is that worth the cost of handing the north koreans a propaganda victory at least in the short term? >> well, if in the end it results in the denuclearization of the korean peninsula, the answer to that is of course yes. but we should never lose sight of what we're dealing with here. this is a brutal regime that at least at this point believes having nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver them is essential to the maintenance of the regime. and that hasn't changed. so i think the president cannot expect that because he believes he's developed some kind of warm relationship with this brutal dictator that they're somehow going to make a different calculation about their own security. so, you know, i hope it results in that, but i think we have to know the history of the korean peninsula, the behavior of the north koreans and understand where the pressure points are with them. that requires lots of preparation, lots of expertise, lots of study. i get nervous because i'm not sure the president has done all of that. >> the president is scaling back expectations. he emphasized that this summit is likely to be a getting to know you kind of meeting rather than final negotiations on denuclearization of the korean peninsula. is he setting the right expectations now? >> well, i think he's explaining why every previous president has refused to give this propaganda victory to the north koreans, that, in fact, before a u.s. president -- there would be to be some understanding of the outcome and they would take actions that would resolve the crisis. the president is now saying oh, no, we're just getting to know each other so he's already significantly changed the first expectation that there would be some kind of resolution, but he's given them basically everything they want, a meeting with the president of the united states, which is a huge victory for them, with no expectation there's going to be a single bit of change in behavior by the north koreans. that's not necessarily a good thing. i ges uess it's better to be ta than not. there's no military resolution that's possible without serious loss of life, so diplomatic solution is the only mechanism, but i think we shouldn't expect a lot out of this meeting. we have a bunch of photos and i'm not sure a lot of results. i hope i'm wrong, and i hope the president is surprised and has a full resolution of it, but it's hard to believe that will happen when you look at the history of the peninsula, what the current thinking is of the regime, of kim jong-un, and the necessity of protecting his regime and staying in power and really not saying anything that would suggest that he's willing to give up nuclear weapons in exchange even for financial assistance from the u.s. >> congressman, thanks so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. up next, more breaking news as president trump announces the summit with kim jong-un is back on, he also makes clear he views it as a start of a get-acquainted process. president trump celebrates strong jobs numbers and low employment. but are his new tariffs sparking a trade war that could kill american jobs? 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this farmer's morning starts in outer space. where satellites feed infrared images of his land into a system built with ai. he uses watson to analyze his data with millions of weather forecasts from the cloud, and iot sensors down here, for precise monitoring of irrigation. it's a smart way to help increase yields, all before the rest of us get out of bed. breaking -- announces his meeting with kim jong-un is back on. they're meeting in singapore. and more breaking news, stocks surging today following a sizzling jobs report bringing the unemployment rate down in the united states to a stunning 3.8%, matching a 50-year low. but markets started spiking too soon, seconds after the president broke decades of strict protocol by tweeting a hint about the jobs report an hour before that sensitive information was officially released. let's go to our cnn global economic analyst. how extraordinary is this unemployment rate and what does it say about the overall u.s. economy? >> well, it's pretty extraordinary, wolf. as you said, we have not seen these kinds of numbers in a really long time. we should be in a good place. it has to be said we're at the end of a nine-year recovery cycle. it's been nine years since the financial crisis. we've been clawing our way back. and we have a great unemployment number. it needs to be caveated though we're not seeing a lot of wage growth. that's why people are concerned about what's going to happen next in terms of how companies might use that big tax break they got through the trump fiscal stimulus plan, what are they going to do with it, and is a possible trade war going to derail investment plans and put the cap on this unemployment story. >> how long can all this last, this good economic news, and what should we worry about? >> like i sad, we aid, we are i late stages of a recovery cycle. all things being equal, we're actually due for a slowdown soon. the president has wanted to keep the economy turbocharged, probably to carry the republicans through the elections, but we are at a natural tipping point where we'll probably see slower growth as early as next year. >> before the numbers ko s came at 8:30 eastern, here's what the president tweeted -- looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning. he's not supposed to do that. did he move the markets, and does this break a long-standing rule about not commenting on jobs numbers there's for one hour after numbers are released at 8:30? >> you're referring to a rule in place since 1985 started in the reagan administration. no federal employee is supposed to talk about those numbers until an hour after they've been released. larry kudlow, his adviser, said he didn't talk about the numbers, just said he was looking forward to them. but, yeah, the market absolutely moved. what happens next month if the numbers aren't so good? no tweet, a different kind of tweet? in a different era, this might prompt investigations, but frankly folks in washington have a lot else on their plate right now. >> on the trade issue, president trump's policies are putting up to 2.6 million american jobs at risk. is the president jeopardizing this dramatic recovery we've seen in recent years by threatening trade wars with canada, mexico, the european union, china, and a whole bunch of other countries? >> you know, i think so, wolf. i mean, you'd be hard per-presso find somebody on either side of the bench that isn't worried about this. the president wanted to keep the economy growing, cut taxes, did a lot of things to create stimulus, and now he's juf s offsetting that with a risk of a trade war. there is no historical example in which a tornarade war is goor anybody. it's a losing game. and companies like the e.u. could help us win legitimate arguments with china around trade issues. >> thanks for the analysis. >> thank you. >> coming up, more breaking news. after announcing that the north korean summit the back on, president trump says he got a hand-delivered letter from kim jong-un but tells reporters he still hasn't read that letter. listen. >> a very nice letter. oh, would you like to see what was in that letter. how much, how much? 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it was a very interesting letter. at some point it may be appropriate, i'll be able to give it to you maybe, and you'll be able to see it. i haven't seen the letter yet. i purposely didn't open the letter. i haven't opened it. i didn't open it in front of the director. i said would you want me to open it? he said, you can read it later. i may be in for a big surprise, folks. i don't want to use the term maximum pressure anymore because i don't want to use that term because we're getting along. you see the relationship. it's not a question of maximum pressure. it's staying essentially the way it is. >> do you believe kim is committed to denuclearization? >> i think so. he'd like to see it happen. he wants to be careful. he's not going to run and do things, but i told him to be honest with you, look, we have sanctions on, they're very powerful sanctions. we would not take sanctions off unless they did. the sanctions are very powerful. you've seen how powerful in other ways. you're going to see how powerful sanctions are when it comes to iran. you'll see what that's doing to iran. so we have sanctions on. and at a certain point -- i'll tell you what, i look forward to the day when i can take the sanctions off of north korea. i have a lot of good relations with as you know chairman xi. he's a great -- he's really a very wonderful guy. he's a man that loves china, however. he wants to do what's best for china. i think china and president xi would love to see something happen here. i didn't like the russian meeting yesterday. i said what's the purpose of that? but it could be a positive meeting. if it's a positive mooting i love it. if it's a negative meeting, i'm not happy with it. remember what i say. we will see what we will see. >> and we will. let's get some insights from our political and national security experts, sean turner, what do you think? a lengthy statement from the president. lots of q&a following that extraordinary meeting. >> it was a lengthy statement, wolf. i think to the degree we've made progress here, the progress we've mad is there's a possibility that this meeting will actually happen. but that's the easy part. we have to remember that when we went into this, when we started this, what the president and administration wanted was clear, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization. what i found really interesting about the president's language is there's kind of this language of managing expectations. he's softening on his language, softening on his rhetoric, talking about maybe there will be more meetings, maybe this is a process. every single expert who's watched this from the beginning has said that in order to get anywhere with north korea we have to maintain maximum pressure. and the president's already saying that's a term he doesn't want to use anymore. >> i'm told, dana, that the president believes this potentially could be a nixon goes to china kind of moment. what does that say to you about his mind-set? >> he is so determined to get something done, to be the guy. you can see it in his body language. you can hear it in the way he talks, talking about over and over, rightly so, that presidents of the past 2 1/2 decades have not been able to deal with this and they should have, meaning he's going to be the guy to do it. and that certainly is noble and noteworthy and it would be absolutely wonderful for the whole globe if he were successful. the concern among even people who are in the white house is that he's so eager that he might sort of kind of trip over himself to come up with a deal that is not good for united states. now, he is certainly a deal maker, and that's how he ran for president, but this isn't a real estate deal. this is global, geopolitical and nuclear. >> gloria, talk about the amazing optics we saw watching this unfold. >> in the window. >> in the oval office we thought for maybe a few minutes. lasted more than an hour. >> right. 90 minutes. and when the meeting was over, the president comes out, he escorts kim jong-un's emissary, who, by the way, is not known to be a nice guy, okay, escorts him to his car, chats with him a little bit, shakes his hand, which the chief of staff kelly did not do when he was on his way in, shakes his hand, and then when he leaves then holds a sort of an impromptu presser talking about how the process has begun. and, you know, the president is a producer. he's a producer of reality tv shows. he gets how this works. and the world is watching and he wants the world to be watching. what's different about this, though, what was so striking to me is that, a, he changed his tune, because now he's talking about a process, not talking about getting things done, and, b, this is so different from any other summit we've ever seen because the people at the top are the ones laying the groundwork, it seems to me, rather than the people in the experts, you know, the north korea, south korea experts from the ground up, for months and years. this is coming from the top down,ite it's a little tricky that way, particularly with these two men who are known to be combustible. >> good point. by the way, we are told that when the president was peeking with reporters he hadn't yet read the hand-delivered letter from kim jong-un, but since then he has sat down and read the letter. >> although he said he read it. >> but then he said he hadn't read it, asked the director if he should read it, he said he could wait. so he waited. he read the letter, so that is over with. presumably we'll all find out about the letter sooner rather than later. >> stay tuned. >> let's talk about pardons. the president has been issuing these pardons. the suspicion is he's trying to send messages out there to some individual who is may be implicated in the overall robert mueller russia investigation. roger stern, longtime confidant, adviser to the president, could be a witness, he told "the washington post" this -- it has to be a signal to mike flynn and paul manafort, even robert s. mueller iii, indeet people for crimes that don't pertain to russian collusion and this is what could happen. the special counsel has awesome powers as you know, but the president has even more awesome powers. that from roger stone. does its appear the president is sending a loud and clear message? >> i think it is a message. i think roger stone's comments reflect it's being received. there have been prior reports about president trump's lawyers previously having potentially directly discussed the issue of the pardon with michael flynn and paul manafort's lawyers. now the president's former lawyers deny that. but this has been long-standing. it's only heightened by the fact these pardons are for the kinds of kymes, campaign finance violation, contempt, lying to federal investigators that are likely to emerge in the mueller probe. one thing you have to ask yourself is if you're in paul manafort's shoes, for example, would you risk potentially the rest of your life in prison, certainly many, many years on donald trump keeping his word? that's quite a gamble to make. >> not an easy gamble at all. dana, you'll be hosting "state of the union" this sunday. you have a very special guest, kevin mccarthy, the republican majority leader. this is going to come up, a lot of other subjects will come up, 9:00 a.m., 12:00 noon eastern. as the minutes tick down before his resignation takes effect, will missouri's governor do anything about the sentence many believe is -- about the sentence of a man many believe is wrongly on death row? 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you may think you can put off checking out your medicare options until you're sixty-five, but now is a good time to get the ball rolling. keep in mind, medicare only covers about eighty percent of part b medical costs. the rest is up to you. that's where aarp medicare supplement insurance plans insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company come in. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they could help pay some of what medicare doesn't, saving you in out-of-pocket medical costs. you've learned that taking informed steps along the way really makes a difference later. that's what it means to go long™. call now and request this free decision guide. it's full of information on medicare and the range of aarp medicare supplement plans to choose from based on your needs and budget. all plans like these let you choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients, and there are no network restrictions. unitedhealthcare insurance company has over thirty years experience and the commitment to roll along with you, keeping you on course. so call now and discover how an aarp medicare supplement plan could go long™ for you. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. plus, nine out of ten plan members surveyed say they would recommend their plan to a friend. remember, medicare doesn't cover everything. the rest is up to you. call now, request your free decision guide and start gathering the information you need to help you keep rolling with confidence. go long™. ♪ hi drama in missouri right now. the embattled governor is getting ready to leave office in about 20 minutes, but before eric frightens' resignation takes effect, the naacp and other groups are hoping for a last-minute act of mercy for a death row inmate. our political reporter, rebecca burke, has spent a lot of time in missouri in the last couple weeks. what's the background? >> marcellus williams was convicted in the 1998 killing stabbing of a "st. louis dispatch" reporter at the time. new dna had come forward in this case by his lawyers. they found dna on the murder weapon, the knife, that did not belong to williams, raising doubts about whether he was actually the killer because there was no dna evidence linking him to the death of ms. gayle. so the governor, eric greitens, last year decided to stay this execution. it was set to move forward in august. he decided that a board would review the conviction, look at the everyday in the case, and make a decision. but the board has not met to make a decision yet, wolf, and so there's some uncertainty. what happens if he doesn't commute the sentence tonight? will the board's review move forward? and we're not really sure yet. but the naacp, the national naacp, has called for the governor to commute this sentence, and they say they're holding their breath this evening as the clock ticks down. >> he only has about 15 or 16 minutes left. if he doesn't do so, what happens? >> well, we're not sure. the board could move forward, but there's some uncertainty because it's very unusual rule that the governor invoked to stay the execution in the first place. but, wolf, there is an indicator that maybe he won't, that governor grit greitens won't de to commute the sentence because he announced a few other commuted sentences earlier this evening, announced he was pardoning some individuals as well. marcellus williams was not on that list. >> 48 years old, marcellus williams. what are you hearing, if anything, from his family? >> you know, obviously, his allies, his family all advocating on his behalf and also the national causes like the naacp, the innocence project have also advocated on his behalf. as i said, the naacp tonight saying they're holding their breath right now as the clock ticks down. >> 15 minutes or so to go. all right. thanks very much, rebecca berg. if you hear something in the next 15 minutes, let us know. we'll get that certainly on the air. coming up, he's gone from an isolated leader that only met with dennis rodman, focus of international attention holding summits with world leaders. will kim jong-un live up to his new image as a statesman? >> i told him today, take your time. we can go fast. we can go slowly. it's time for the semi-annual sale with savings on the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your every move and automatically adjusts on both sides to keep you effortlessly comfortable. and snoring.... does your bed do that? don't miss the final days of our semi-annual sale save up to $700 on sleep number 360 smart beds. ends sunday. . breaking news, president trump, after meeting with the top north korean official in the oval office says his june 12th summit with kim jong-un is back on. let's go to brian todd. testimo the president is praising the north korean leader but also ignoring a lot of kim's history. >> right, wolf. every player is ignoring kim's history. the pace at which events have been moving is simply dizzying. all from a dictator a few months ago can only count dennis rodman as anyone he's met with and never left his country since taking power. one of his top lieutenants, a man believed to have a lot of blood on his hands, met in the oval office today with president trump and in a remarkable moment got a hand shake from the president. >> this is amazing turn around in events. >> reporter: all the more amazing considering that less than six months ago this violent impulsive dictator was considered an international pari ya. >> kim jong-un was a leader who hadn't even met the president of china and was very reclusive, much like his grandfather and his father. and really lived up to the mon kerr, leader of a hermit kingdom. >> reporter: at that time cnn was told plans were being drawn up for a possible u.s. military strike. then came kim's new year's day speech, expressing his desire to soften relations with his enemies, the so-called olympic thaw with his sister extending a hand to moon jae-in. two meetings between kim and moon, a ground breaking summit and holding hands and the announcement of a planned summit with president trump. >> we'll be meeting on june 12th in singapore. >> reporter: there were two meetings with chinese president, xi jinping, along with secretary of state of mike pompeo. and now the russians want in, arranging their own meeting with vladimir putin. a crucial question tonight, what made kim change? >> the maximum pressure campaign has taken a serious bite out of the regime. kim jong-un has been quite desperate. >> most important, he now has the weapons. he has the weapons. and he has the delivery system, so he feels more confident. >> fuelling kim's confidence, the fact that the u.s., south korea, and china have been willing to look past his human rights violations. >> you're talking five to six political prison camps 120,000 men, women and children held in political prison camps pursued with a system of guilt by association. you're talking about a regime that's investing heavily in its tools of death. >> reporter: a record that a veteran diplomat says trump and his allies might have to look past to reach the ultimate objective. >> if we are to lower the agenda to include denuclearization, human rights, then we have to include japanese abductees would be another example, bio chem weapons, conventional weapons, it does get overcrowded. i don't blame them for prioritizing denuclearization at the highest. >> reporter: what are the dangers? veteran security experts warn that president trump, moon jae-in, and their allies could lose sight of kim's ultimate objective, staying in power. they worry the leaders kim is dealing with will look past the fact he'll do anything to stay in power. >> you're hearing from human rights monitors that south korea is sort of bending over backwards to try to bring some kind of peace deal, right? >> absolutely they are, wolf. south korea has often in the past allowed dvds usbs and other media to be sent in to let them know what life is like in south korea. now we're told the south korean government has been sensoring those recordings to delete information critical of the kim regime, those disks sent to north korean, moon jae-in is investing an enormous amount in this, and it's a gamble pr him. coming up, after meeting in the oval office with an aid for kim jong-un, president trump says the summit will take place after all. is that already a big win for north korea? it was here. i couldn't catch my breath. it was the last song of the night. it felt like my heart was skipping beats. i went to the er. they said i had afib. afib? 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how can i share new plans virtually? how can i download an e-file? virtual tours? zip-file? really big files? in seconds, not minutes... just like that. like everything... the answer is simple. i'll do what i've always done... dream more, dream faster, and above all... now, i'll dream gig. now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. happening now, breaking news, ready to deal. president trump's face-to-face meeting with kim jong-un is back on after unprecedented talks at the white house with a powerful north korean official. did the personal touch and a letter from kim seal the summit? the top senate republican is warning about the dangers of dealing with kim as cnn is learning that north korea's big show of derowing a nuclear test tunnel was not what it seemed to be. hardened signals. roger stone said trump was sending signals when he granted a reprieve to a repun adapt. did michael flynn hear it loud and clear. alienating allies, will mr. trump's trade war hurt the committee? we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in the situation. we're following breaking news on president trump and kim jong-un. pushing the restart button on their historic button in singapore a little over a week from now. mr. trump playing up the drama as he met with the north korean dictator's right hand man at the white house. while down playing expectations for any summit break throughs. this after cnn learned that north korea's blowing up its test tunnels appears

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