Donald Trump: Kim Jong-un and I Fell in Love
ALLEN: North Korea says there is still mistrust with the United States. Its foreign minister told the U.N. Saturday his country wants to get rid of nuclear weapons. But he also said pessimistic views in U.S. politics are hurting progress.</s>HOWELL: For his part, the U.S. president doesn't sound pessimistic. Here's what he said on Saturday about the North Korean leader.</s>TRUMP: You know, the interesting, what I did is -- and I was really being tough and so was he. And we go back and forth and then we fell in love. OK? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters. And they're great letters. We fell in love.</s>ALLEN: Let's go to CNN's Will Ripley, joining us from Hong Kong, he's been in North Korea many times. That has to be one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard a U.S. president say, they fell in love.</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They haven't even had a second date yet. Things move a little slower in North Korea, they're a little more conservative about these things.</s>ALLEN: Oh, my goodness. You've got to wonder, after we heard there from the foreign secretary of the U.N., what North Korea's response will be to the president saying that.</s>RIPLEY: I would imagine privately, Natalie, at Kim Jong-un's palace somewhere in North Korea, there was a clinking of soju and a congratulations to the leader because things are going according to plan. The North Koreans studied President Trump long before Kim Jong- un ever sat down with him. And the whole strategy was --</s>RIPLEY: -- to try to figure out a way, after all of the fire and fury threats and the real danger of escalating to a military conflict, how could the North Koreans turn the situation around? So they stopped launching missiles, they don't parade the missiles. They're still developing them, they still possess them, haven't given any of them up yet. But because the optics have changed, combined with all these letters and messages, praising President Trump, it has completely -- the whole dynamic has changed. Now President Trump saying he's in love with Kim Jong-un, he has a good, warm relationship with him, he's open to a second summit, which is expected to happen later this year. Even though North Korea hasn't actually given up any nuclear weapons yet, they have, you know, essentially done what we would be considered confidence building measures, getting rid of their nuclear test site, starting the dismantlement of some of their testing facility while holding on to the key assets, the missiles and the warheads and saying they're not going to give those up until sanctions are lifted and until there is a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War. So the U.S. and North Korea are still really far apart on the key issues. But if President Trump's love for Kim Jong-un can help him, you know, help the North Koreans convince him to change the U.S. position, then North Korea might get exactly what they want at the end of this. And, you know, perhaps the U.S. gets what it wants eventually, which is a North Korea free of nuclear weapons. But that's probably a long time coming and some very tough negotiations certainly lie ahead.</s>ALLEN: Well, like or love or whatever, yes, a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, that's what we're looking for. Will Ripley, thanks so much.</s>HOWELL: From love affairs to weather, Typhoon Trami headed toward Japan's main island. It's already hit southern Ryukyu island with hurricane force winds and rain.</s>ALLEN: If it makes landfall on Japan's big island, it would be the fifth typhoon to hit the nation since July.</s>HOWELL: President Trump says he is not limiting the scope of the FBI's background check into his Supreme Court pick. And while he's slamming Democrats for, as he puts it, trying to keep Judge Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court, he's saying something entirely different about the FBI. Listen.</s>TRUMP: There's never been anybody that has been looked at like Judge Kavanaugh. I think it is going to work out very well. But the FBI, I believe, is doing a really great job. They have been all over it.