Pompeo Meets with North Korea
KING: Welcome back. High-stakes conversations in New York today between the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and a key North Korean official, Kim Yong Chol. They ended a short time ago, ending on this day about two hours earlier than scheduled. Pompeo tweeting that they had substantive talks with the North Korean team, adding, we discussed our priorities for the potential summit between our two leaders. We saw some promising images as they day began. What we're waiting to see is if we get some promising results, promising proposals from these conversations. You see the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, here shaking hands with Kim Yong Chol. That's in Manhattan, a high rise building. That's before this morning's meeting. They also dined together last night. Steak, corn and cheese on the menu, according to the secretary of state. President Trump has been getting constant updates throughout these meetings. Earlier today, before he left for Texas, he said things are going well. He also disclosed that Kim Yong Chol is carrying a letter from the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. The contents of which could well determine if that planned Singapore summit goes forward just 12 days from now.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I believe they'll be coming down from Washington on Friday. And a letter is going to be delivered to me from Kim Jong-un. So I look forward to seeing what's in the letter. But it's very important to them. Hopefully we'll have a meeting on the 12th. It's going along very well. But I want it to be meaningful. It doesn't mean it gets all done at one meeting. Maybe you have to have a second or a third. And maybe we'll have none. But it's in good hands.</s>KING: That's the key. What the president just said right there, it doesn't all have to be done, meaning, you can -- this will -- this is a 10, 15-year process if -- the biggest if in global conversations right now, if North Korea actually agrees to completely denuclearize. But what is -- what is the test for the president? What needs to be in that letter to Kim Jong-un, and what does Mike Pompeo need to return from Washington saying, I looked this man in the eye, who was the former spy chief, who is the right-hand man to Kim Jong-un, I'm convinced they are serious about this. What do we need to get a summit in 12 days?</s>JOHNSON: You know, senior administration officials tell me that they need to know that denuclearization is going to be the subject of conversations, and not denuclearization meaning Americans leaving the Korean peninsula, but a real commitment from North Korea to eliminating some of their nuclear weapons. It may not necessarily be all. I think John Bolton and Mike Pompeo may be thinking about this a little differently. But an openness, a willingness to talk about that on the part of the North Koreans.</s>KING: And that's where it gets fascinating. If -- are -- is North Korea willing to come to the table in a written document to commit to denuclearization that -- in a way that's acceptable to the president and a way that the president works out any disagreements between John Bolton and Mike Pompeo? And then, what does that process look like? Does it go to the United Nations? Who are the inspectors? What international agency, or is it a U.S. agency that does that? And I think the key question is, what is the president prepared to come to the table with? If he gets those assurances and if he trusts them, which is another big if, is he willing to say, OK, we're going to relieve sanctions immediately, we'll give you economic aid immediately, or is there a two, three, five year sequencing plan?</s>RAJU: Well, that's what they --</s>LUCEY: Yes, it's how they do it. Is it -- is it a phased approach? There's been some conversation out with a -- you know, to get piece by piece. They do something, we do something. But I think what we have to see is, can they come to an agreement that there will -- a, that there will be a meeting, and that they can announce some kind of deliverable. The president really want to do the meeting. I think we're all very clear on that. But he needs to be able -- his people want to go into it and be able to come out of it saying he got something.</s>RAJU: And that's the real risk, right, whether to give them incentives up front or whether or not to have hard commitments. And this is exactly what they criticized the Iran nuclear deal about because they believe they gave all the initiatives up front and did not get enough commitments. But, you know, North Korea, it's hard to see how they would completely denuclearize, which is a significant step, a years' long step without some significant sanctions relief up front, and that's what is such a big risk is for the president in doing this.</s>KING: And part of the risk here, as you jump in, I just want to show these historical photos. This is Madeline Albright, secretary of state in the Bill Clinton administration, in October of 2000, having a toast with the vice marshal of North Korea. They negotiated a deal. This was viewed as an historic breakthrough. This was in Washington. You have the secretary of state. Pompeo has to be aware of this, has to know this history here. You're meeting with these people. Everything sounds right. Everything looks right. They had an agreement and the North Koreans started cheating, I think, before the ink was dry.</s>DEMIRJIAN: Right. Exactly. And then -- I mean that's -- this is -- this is the history of it. And you had six parties involved in those talks eventually and now you're starting this again where the -- Trump is kind of calling all the shots and you don't have, you know, China at the table, you don't have Russia at the table. The South Koreans are kind of being treated as brokers but they're not really going to be part of this particular summit if it happens anyway. And, remember, look, we're looking at the Iran nuclear deal and the past North Korea attempts as the precedent for what the North Koreans might ask for here. But it may not just be a simple denuclearized for economic sanctions release quid pro quo. What if they ask for us to pull back on our military capacity on the peninsula or some of our, you know, commitments we've made to various allies in the region. That could make this far more complicated as they start to really drill down to what they mean by these terms.</s>KING: And, again, what we're hearing so far, this from a senior State Department official, that talks ended a little bit early today. I would read almost nothing into that. Again, you try traveling from Asia to the United States and then go into high stakes meetings after being up late for dinner. The meetings went well -- went well. They made progress. That from a senior State Department official. Defining progress is the hard part here. Jim Clapper, who's the former top U.S. spy chief. Kim Yong Chol is the former top North Korean spy chief. These two men have studied each other. They don't know each other personally, but they studied each other. Here's James Clapper's take on what he's seen so far from the North Korean right-hand man.</s>JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: He looked to me to be a bit overwhelmed by what he was experiencing.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Do you trust him?</s>CLAPPER: Well, I think with the North Koreans you definitely need to be in the trust but verify mode.</s>KING: That's the fascinating part here. And I think -- I think even the president's fiercest critics have said, you know, if you think there's reason to go forward with this, give it a shot. Why not, right? Give it a shot. North Korea has nuclear weapons capable of reaching the United States mainland. They've been on a gangbusters development of those programs. If you think you can somehow -- the president says get rid of them completely, a lot of people would say even if you can significantly scale them back or get some sort of agreement where they, you know, stop testing them and stop using them, some people think that's good enough. The president's made clear, that's not his goal heading into this, it's the verification part. Sergey Lavror, the Russian foreign minister, traveling to North Korea, says the Russians need to be brought in -- to your point, needs to be brought into this. Should it be the United Nations brought in? We don't have any information from the administration so far as to if they think they can get an agreement, that then takes a second meeting, a third meeting and it will take a second year and a third year and a fourth year, it's like, what does that look like? Who does that involve? And we know they're all skeptical of these international organizations. But you can't do it without them, right?</s>JOHNSON: I think the president and his advisers are still hashing that out amongst themselves yet. They're not going in, talking to the North Koreans with a clear, thought out plan, about how they're thinking about this and what they want. I think that was clear from the president's pull-back and then quick reengagement with the North Koreans.</s>KING: This is about, can we trust you?</s>JOHNSON: It --</s>KING: Or no?</s>JOHNSON: I think -- I think that's right. And on, you know, a background briefing call last week shortly after the president sent the letter, a senior administration official cited a series of broken promises on the part of North Korean officials. So, suffice it to say, I think Secretary of State Pompeo went in skeptical and they're going to need a series of signs from the North Koreans that this -- that this -- there might be an upside for the president engaging in these talks.</s>LUCEY: But we're also seeing a lot of the energy right now from the president, at least publicly, is going to literally, will the meeting happen or not?</s>KING: Right.</s>LUCEY: The -- will they, won't they, on again, off again, much less about the content. It's just a lot of --</s>KING: They all seem to want -- they all seem to want -- I'm just going to -- until we know otherwise, I'm going to assume, given what John Bolton has said, what Secretary Pompeo has said, and even what the president has said, I'm going to assume the deal with the content behind the scenes if they're not that naive for now. We'll see as we go forward. But they all do seem leaning forward, if you will, they're having it right now. We'll keep an eye on that. Hopefully we'll get more word from the secretary of state today in these conversations. Up next for us, though, the Dow down again as fears of a global trade war ramp up because of a big White House action just this morning.