Another Hectic Week At White House As N. Korea Summit Teeters; President Waffles On Canceling North Korea Summit; Summit Whiplash.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Good evening, I'm Jim Sciutto, Anderson is off tonight. The National Security Council confirmed that lines of communications with North Korea are back open again, and even the Trump-Kim Jong-un summit now seems at least back in play.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, is the summit still on?</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to see what happens. We're talking to them now. It was a very nice statement they put up. We'll see what happens.</s>SCIUTTO: So just one day after axing the June 12th meeting in Singapore, in a letter mixing nuclear bluster and "call me maybe" the president today reversed course.</s>TRUMP: We will see what happens. It could even be the 12th. We're talking to them now. They very much want to do it, we'd like to do it. We're going to see what happens.</s>SCIUTTO: We'd like to do it, he says. And again late today we learned that conversations between Washington and Pyongyang are back underway. So what's Korean for whiplash? We asked one of our guests tonight, Sue Mi Terry who I'll apologize in advance for what I know is going to be a brutal pronunciation but she says it is called -- and from little rocket man to future peace partner to jilted ex to we'll see what happens, it's been -- all the way. Even line by line and the president's "Dear Kim" letter yesterday, quote, "You talk about nuclear capabilities but," he writes, "ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to god they will never have to be used." And later, in that same letter, "If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write." And there was more whiplash. CNN's Barbara Starr reports that the Pentagon is on alert for some kind of North Korean nuclear or missile testing. At the same time Defense Secretary Mattis he's signaling optimism.</s>JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are not changing anything right now. Steady as she goes. The diplomats are in the lead and in charge.</s>SCIUTTO: So serious questions remain about just what those diplomats are being asked to accomplish now, what the president really wants to get out of this summit, and the role for good or ill that China might play. Also, perhaps most importantly, how each side understands the very notion of denuclearization, which is after all the central issue on all this. And what the unpredictable and intractable Kim might do next, that is forever unclear, which may also apply you might say to President Trump. He has, remember, touted the value of unpredictability and the nearly boundless virtues of his own deal- making.</s>TRUMP: We need somebody with great energy, with great passion, with great deal-making skills. I am going to make the great deals. I am going to make great deals for our country. I mean what I do is I do deals. I deal. I negotiate by creating leverage. So I can extract a good deal for the United States. For the people. I makes deals. I negotiate. Everybody wants me to negotiate. That's what I'm known as, as a negotiator. I'm so anxious to negotiate. Nobody can out-negotiate these deals. I will make a great deal and lots of great deals for the American people. I am a deal-maker, and that's what the country needs, is a deal-maker. We don't make great deals anymore. But we will once I become president. I'm a closer. We're going to close. We're going to start winning so much just like the video. We're going to win, and win and win.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, we'll see. More now on all this from CNN's Pamela Brown, she joins us now from the White House. So, Pamela, do we know what changed? Yesterday the president said it was inappropriate to continue with this summit, even made what appeared to be a nuclear threat. Now 24 hours later optimism from the White House. Do we know what changed?</s>PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you what changed here, Jim, is the line of communication has re-opened with the North Koreans, according to officials. One official says the North Koreans hasn't been sending the right signals. That has changed ever since the president sent that letter yesterday morning to Kim Jong-un saying that the summit was off the table, boasting about the military prowess, but also inviting him to call or write. And then there was that conciliatory statement from a senior North Korean official last night praising the president for having the confidence to do the summit and showing an eagerness to continue to hold talks, saying that the North Koreans are prepared to sit face-to- face anywhere, anyhow, anytime. And so that certainly added to this optimism from the White House. You saw that from the president today. Clearly he liked the statement saying that it was warm, productive, it was a nice statement and really leaving that door open that not only could the summit happen but it could still happen on June 12th within the 24-hour window of him cancelling this. So it's clear this is what the president wants. I spoke to one senior administration official who said that the White House is more optimistic than expected today in the wake of that statement from North Korea and the fact that communications have reopened, so we'll have to wait and see what happens, Jim.</s>SCIUTTO: One thing you could often read is what level of planning the White House is doing. Is an advanced team still planning on going to Singapore as was planned before the summit to get the ball rolling for that June 12th date?</s>BROWN: That is the big question because that would certainly be telling, Jim, Sarah Sanders, the press secretary basically said, we'll see. She certainly didn't say that they weren't going to go anymore. They were supposed to leave this evening, Jim, to go to Singapore to get ready and meet with the North Koreans. The White House has yet to definitely say whether they're still going to go just as a contingency for the June 12th summit. As you'll recall officials had said that last time they were just recently they were snubbed by the North Koreans, so it certainly could be telling if they're going to proceed as planned to go to Singapore to prepare for the summit on June 12th. We'll have to wait and see on that front as well -- Jim.</s>SCIUTTO: You can be forgiven for being confused by all this. Pam Brown, at the White House, thanks very much. Well, when we last seen Will Ripley had literally just broken the news on the North Koreans about Trump. President Trump calling off the summit. He'd just come back from the destruction earlier that same day on the nuclear test site by North Koreans. Safe to say the North Koreans were surprised by the president's letter. Will remains in North Korea and he joins us now from Wonsan. So, Will Ripley, you are in North Korea. What are North Koreans officials saying about the summit? Do they believe there is hope it still comes off?</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think they're cautiously optimistic, Jim. I mean, there was a lot of shock on the train ride from the Punggye-ri nuclear test site when we learned that President Trump had cancelled the summit, and yet the next morning instead of the angry response we were expecting from North Korea especially after their heated rhetoric, the insult hurled with Vice President Pence calling him a political dummy after he compared North Korea to Libya, of course a country that gave up its nuclear weapons only to have its dictatorship overthrown a few years later. The North Koreans now, it does seem as if they think that they can work with the United States. And that's why you saw that statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a much more conciliatory tone. They offered praise for President Trump, they said he was brave for taking steps, that no other U.S. president has taken before, and they said they're willing to sit down and talk with the United States at any time. So we know that North Korean diplomats have now re-opened lines of communication with the United States. It had been closed. They're now returning phone calls and whatnot, trying to see if they can work out and make something happen to make this summit in Singapore occur on June 12th as was originally scheduled. We'll see.</s>SCIUTTO: So what happens now? What are the next steps? Because they can agree to have the summit but is there any indication that North Korea is willing to move towards the key issue here which is actual denuclearization by the U.S. definition which is to say no nukes whatsoever?</s>RIPLEY: Well, I can tell you over many visits to this country over the last several years on every trip, North Korean officials told me they would never give up their nuclear weapons. It's written to their constitution that they're a nuclear power. And yet what we've seen in recent months has been an abrupt U-turn and that has largely at the direction of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. He has now said that he is willing to discuss denuclearization with the United States in exchange for the end of what North Korea considers a hostile policy by the U.S. towards North Korea. They don't want to see as many U.S. forces on the Korean peninsula. Eventually that would be like to see them all withdrawn. They're not happy about the American nuclear umbrella that protects South Korea and Japan. And so they want the United States to take steps along with the North Koreans which means that they don't think of denuclearization as a process that would take a matter of months, like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has suggested, but a longer term process. Something that also -- China also shares that view that it's not going to be something that happens overnight.</s>SCIUTTO: A lot of distance between the two sides. Will Ripley in North Korea. Thanks very much. Perspective now from two people with long experience on the Korean peninsula and in pulling off summits. Former CIA North Korea analyst, Sue Mi Terry, she is Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Also with us, CNN diplomatic and military affairs analyst, retired Rear Admiral John Kirby. Dr. Terry, if I could begin with you, does this drama, this back and forth in the span of 24 hours, the friendly note, the "our nuclear arsenal is bigger than yours," the "please call me now," you know, everything is warm and productive. Does that lay -- does that credibly lay the groundwork for a incredible summit between the U.S. president and the North Korean leader?</s>SUE MI TERRY, FORMER CIA NORTH KOREA ANALYST: Well, this whiplash, and you said -- I'm sure caught North Koreans by surprise. They're completely floored by this. There's certainly no U.S. president -- they expect no U.S. president would act this way. But North Koreans never wanted to cancel this meeting. Their signals were not understood correctly. The two previous statements that they were making was a protest against this Libyan deal and all this rhetoric coming out of Washington on Libya, because Libya is a nightmare scenario for North Koreans. But they never wanted to cancel the meeting. Kim Jong-un actually really wants this meeting. So I do think this meeting is going to happen now that Trump wants it and Kim Jong-un wants it. And their last statement that came out seven hours after Trump cancelling the meeting, I have never seen such a statement before. It was very conciliatory for North Korean standard. Personally praising Trump. So I do think there is an incentive for these two leaders to meet. And I think it's going to happen.</s>SCIUTTO: Admiral Kirby, I can practically hear the president's orders, perhaps the president himself saying this is Trump the deal- maker. He threatens to walk away from the table. He brings them back to the table. In your experience, you dealt it with the State Department, you were a rear admiral in the United States Navy and the Pentagon, do those kinds of tactics apply in a sensitive international discussion about nuclear weapons?</s>REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: I don't know if those tactics will necessarily work well once the summit happens and they're sitting down across from one another. There is nothing more difficult or complicated or nuanced in arms control discussions. You really got to know your detail. But in getting ready for a summit, in -- for a meeting particularly in that part of the world, yes, I think this tactic could work. I think it actually has worked. I mean, he pulled a Kim on Kim. If you might remember in the run-up to the Olympics Kim was threatening hey, I'm not going to go, I'm not getting all the infrastructure support and the resources he wanted, he threatened to pull out, of course they made accommodations in, and he came. I was involved with sensitive discussions for a senior Pentagon official to go visit China many years ago, we weren't getting the kind of schedule that we wanted so we pulled the rug out from under the ship, said we're not going to come, all of a sudden, things that we needed to get on the schedule started getting on the schedule and the trip happens. So it could work in terms of getting the summit in place. But in terms of a successful summit, that's a whole different matter.</s>SCIUTTO: Dr. Terry, that's really the issue here because you can make the summit happen, I imagine, if both leaders want it. That's what you need. But on the issues that they're going to negotiate here, the key one being, will North Korea denuclearize by the definition that the U.S. has of denuclearizing, no nukes. Particularly for a regime that views nuclear weapons as really its means of survival. Do you see the two sides getting closer on that clear -- that key issue?</s>TERRY: Well, that's a key question. As Will talked about, denuclearization for North Korea means something entirely different. They always meant denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is the regime's security is guaranteed and if U.S.</s>SCIUTTO: Sure. And better for them to sit down than be threatening and shooting at each other. Admiral Kirby, one senior administration official told CNN today June 12th, quote, "is in 10 minutes." So if this does happen, it certainly doesn't give diplomats a lot of time to work out if not agreement on those key issues at least a path to agreement on those key issues.</s>KIRBY: Yes. Look, summit preparations for any head of state meeting is a huge undertaking and takes a lot of detailed planning. Even in the best of circumstances, Jim, when the two heads of states are friendly and we know the meeting is going to happen. It's really difficult right now. And I would argue that June 12th was 10 minutes away back when Trump agreed to actually have that meeting because it was on a fast track back then. Now I'm heartened to hear from Pam's reporting that the backchannels in communications are back in place and there's talking. I suspect that there wasn't that much of a gap in terms of time of planning, given their little kerfuffle over the last day so I suspect they're going to be able to get back on track pretty quickly, but still it's a lot to get done in a very short of period of time.</s>SCIUTTO: Sue Mi Terry, Admiral Kirby, thanks very much. Well, next we're learning more about the chief White House defense lawyer's presence at a meeting that many believe he had no business whatsoever getting near. We're also learning that the White House's initial story about it might not have been -- listen to this, might not have been true. Later, the man hit by a lava bomb. We're learning now that he is more than just a survivor. He is being called a hero and we're going to show you why.