North Korea: U.S. Attitude on Talks "Regrettable," Still Have Faith in Trump
JOHNS: "Regrettable," that is the word North Korea is using to describe talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo, on the other hand, used the word "progress" to describe two days of denuclearization talks with North Korea. Joining me now to discuss it is CNN global affairs analyst, Joseph Yun. He's also a former special representative for North Korean policy. Welcome so much. And thank you so much for coming in on a Saturday. What are we make of the words North Korea is using in this latest statement?</s>JOSEPH YUN, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think this is bad diplomatic language, kind of rude, if you ask me. What you heard Mike Pompeo say, progress, it's like the equivalent to diplomatic Band-Aid. North Korea just took that Band-Aid off, you know? And --</s>JOHNS: Is this part of the North Korea playbook?</s>JOHNS: Is this what other presidents and other administrations have done all along? Are we right back where we started?</s>YUN: That's a good question, Joe. Is this beginning of the end of what President Trump started in Singapore? I certainly hope not. We do not want to go back to "fire and fury." We don't want to go back there. But I think what happened in Singapore, expectations did meet. They got away. They thought something else was said. And I think Mike Pompeo gets an "A" for effort for doing all of this. He's been to Pyongyang three times in as many months. He's met his counterpart five times but still he's coming back empty handed.</s>JOHNS: What do you make of the fact that Secretary Pompeo did not meet with Kim Jong-Un himself?</s>YUN: That's a huge negative sign. It tells you the meetings did not go well. In the end, Kim Jong-Un said, no, I'm not going to meet him. He didn't bring me anything. It was doubly rude because Mike Pompeo brought the presidential letter, perhaps even a gift, too. When you do that, you're completely expected to hand over the note and anything else the president gives you to the leader himself.</s>JOHNS: Do we even know what denuclearization means at this point? It doesn't seem to have been defined at all.</s>YUN: Yes. It has not been defined, and that is the key issue. That is very much the issue. North Korea is saying, you've asked us to do all this, but what have you done in return? To me, we need to fix what's going on in Washington. North Koreans are hearing many, many messages, and they're mixed. They're hearing from Bolton, well, they could denuclearize within one year if they wanted to. They're hearing from Pompeo, this has to go slow, they need more time. They need to hear a unified voice, and they're not hearing that.</s>JOHNS: One of the questions that always strikes me is, what would it take to make North Korea feel safe enough to seriously move down the road of denuclearization? Do we have some sense of what it would take to actually get there as opposed to talking about it and going back and forth and deciding we're not going to go anywhere?</s>YUN: That is the most difficult question. That is a question that I certainly don't know. I mean, I think what they want is a guarantee that the regime would survive, that Kim Jong-Un would survive. And so this is what President Trump told Kim Jong-Un. You know, he told him publicly that, we guarantee you, you and your family will be safe, and they will survive. But, again, how can we guarantee that? What happens -- it's been said many times, like Libya, Gadhafi was gotten rid of by his own people. Can we stop that? I don't this so, you know?</s>JOHNS: Joseph Yun, thank you so much. Thanks for coming in on a Saturday.</s>YUN: Thank you very much.</s>JOHNS: Coming up next, a list of demands from the president's legal team. Why they say President Trump will not meet with the special counsel on the Russian probe unless he has proof that the president committed a crime. The potential legal standoff coming up, next.