thank you very much but breaking tonight a new report just moments ago says North
Korea according to state media is saying that President Trump's decision to scrap
the summit is not in line with the world's wishes and that they are willing
to resolve the issues that is the latest after the summit was scuttled and North
Korea blamed in part comments made during our interview with the vice
president on Monday when kim jongwan through the south koreans reached out
and said that he would suspend his nuclear testing suspend his ballistic
testing and be willing to achieve complete denuclearization through talks
in exchange for a meeting with president Trump this president readily said yes
they asked for the meeting and we continue to be open to it I'm Martha
McCallum and this is the story it is clear that a sequence of events and
breakdown in the discussions over the recent days including that comment which
led the North Koreans to make disparaging remarks about the vice
president led to a decision agreed to by all of the top members of
the administration and ultimately decided by the president and expressed
in this strongly worded letter today dear mr. chairman it began it went on to
say we were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea but that is
totally irrelevant the president then cites the tremendous anger and open
hostility of North Korea's recent statement as cause for the cancellation
North Korea also claims that it was put off by this comment as the president
made clear you know this this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim
jong-un doesn't make a deal some people saw that as a threat well I think it's
more of a fact president Trump made it clear in the United States of America
under his leadership is not going to tolerate the regime in North Korea
possessing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that threaten the United States
and our allies so now all of that lines up with prior statements from the
president from the Secretary of State from John Bolton and now here's Sean
Spicer what former White House press secretary and author of the upcoming
book the briefing Sean good to have you with us tonight you said a couple of
days ago I think this is going to happen so given the breaking news this evening
do you still stand by that well I first of all I'm a little concerned about the
interview now with you because apparently this is this is what's going
to help determine the outcome but I think that look the president's a master
negotiator he is the author of the art of the deal I don't know that we've seen
the end of this summit on June 12th but I think he's made it very clear that
unless Kim jong-un makes the appropriate concessions before the United States
sits down face to face with him there will be no meeting and I think that's a
entirely appropriate yeah the president recognizes that 90% of what Kim jong-un
wants is this face-to-face meeting he wants to be seen as a legitimate world
leader and the president won't give it to him unless he makes the appropriate
conceptions and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula but you know clearly there
were assurances given when you see the photographs with Mike Pompeo and Kim
Jong on right and then you also look at the you know very sort of friendly hop
skipping over the curb at the blue house in North Korea with the South Korean and
North Korean leader I mean it's pretty clear to the world that that Kim jong-un
wanted to move in the direction of this summit but the president keeps referring
back to the possibility that the second meeting with President Xi in China is
when things sort of started to fall apart and we're learning that that the
communication really started to break down several days ago your thoughts
well I think you're right that in the sense that you had three hostages
released to the United States and an act of good faith
you had an attempt to show the the Western media this this dismantling of a
nuclear site those were clearly done to show that president excuse me the
chairman Kim was taking the right steps but I think that he overestimated
president Trump's desire to have this meeting and president Trump was pretty
clear that until he saw additional concrete steps and concessions that
showed that North Korea was truly going to denuclearize the the peninsula he
wasn't Granum this meeting and that's that's the important part the United
States and President Crump by the way has made this clear since the beginning
where he has said you know if we get a deal great if we don't we won't and we
might still you know there's still an opportunity president Trump's kept all
the cards on the table he's made it very clear that there are conditions that are
gonna have to be met before he grants him this meeting and I think he's played
him perfectly yeah I mean and with regard to our interview what vice
president pence said to me in that interview lined up as I said with things
that President Trump had said prior to that that they wanted complete
denuclearization the president one point said that you know they didn't want the
Libya model which is complete denuclearization but I think he was
referring to what happened later to Muammar Qaddafi and that they were
giving essentially security to Kim Jong on that that isn't how he would end up I
just want to point out there's you know we're getting some brand new information
as we speak here Sean and a little bit more light being shed on their recent
statement tonight leader Kim jong-un had focused every effort on his meeting with
President Trump and they say that the president's decision today did not match
with the world's desire so it clearly appears that they're trying to reopen
this door before I get your comment on that I just want to play this because
that you know that the media had a field day today with the letter that came out
and the response you know basically suggesting that this had all blown up in
the president's face and here's what they said
the president was rehearsing his endzone dance and we weren't even at the 50-yard
line yet it's amazing to me that the administration is somehow shocked that
the North Koreans are acting as North Korea acts he must be having a giggle
fit right there now in North Korea the copy of the
president's letter chumming up there's kind of like a Valentine to kim
jeong-hoon really really really what do you think Shawn well really I don't
think we've seen the end of this I think President Trump understands how to
negotiate better than anybody in terms of because of his business background I
don't think that we've seen the end of this he did exactly what no one thought
he would do he told from the beginning if I can make this deal work great if
not I'll walk away he's already shown he can walk away now chairman Kim has to
come back to the table and I think we're gonna see additional
concessions my guess is that that there's a lot of chapters to be written
in this book because president Trump has shown that he can walk away from a bad
deal chairman Kim understands that until he
gets this meeting he continues to be seen as a third-rate dictator he needs
to be seen as an incredible leader and president Trump isn't gonna do anything
to grant him that until he exhibits a you know real concessions ahead of time
so I know that director Pompeo John Bolden and president Trump know exactly
what they're doing and I think that some of these Democrats that are coming out
are getting way too out in front of a story that hasn't seen the end yet what
about you didn't mention vice president Pence in in that group do you think he
stepped out of line at all in that interview
no and I apologized with all due respect to the vice president
that was that's my fault but I think that they that's a great team that
they're all part of they know what they're doing this is a long game and I
think that they all understand the stakes that are at hand and that they're
not going to grant North Korea a meeting a face-to-face meeting that that gives
the legitimacy until that they make the concessions necessary real concrete
things president Trump isn't done this Sean Spicer thank you good good to
see as always thanks Sean thanks Martha so president Trump's announcement of the
North Korea summit cancellation which came this morning via this letter it
came just hours after North Korea claimed to have destroyed their nuclear
site but is there more to the mountain that sunk at this nuclear site senior
foreign affairs correspondent Greg Powell cought live in Seoul South Korea
with more on this story that's a really important element of understanding all
of this great hi Martha yeah completely overshadowed by that cancellation of the
upcoming summit between President Trump and Kim jong-un which should have been
the banner story for Thursday that is the destruction the dismantling by North
Korea of the one nuclear test site that we know about in the northeastern part
of the country they had brought a small group of foreign journalists to observe
this they they blew up three tunnels portholes structure apparently the folks
that on the ground said it was very loud and very strong North Korea claimed at
the time that this was a goodwill gesture a transparent measure by the
regime to promote peace and stability in the region the hitches Martha they
didn't invite any international experts or analysts observers to to confirm
their claims when asked about whether they might do it in the future they said
well maybe but they wouldn't commit they even admitted that the main tunnel that
they blew up which has seen that five different nuclear tests couldn't be used
anymore in the futures of what was the point and then a few hours later Martha
the word came out via the reporters that were on the scene of the cancellation by
President Trump of that summit and apparently the officials the North
Korean regime officials were a little bit shocked I got to tell you from our
experience in North Korea and we have been there several times in the past the
regime is a very good at stage managing things not too good at ad-libbing things
because for example one time we were supposed to be watching a missile launch
they went right and then it wrong and the officials there were a
little bit lost as to how to handle it we will see now Martha how they're gonna
handle this this curveball from the White House on Thursday it is Friday
morning you at the top of your show were relaying the comments coming from the
state media at KCNA they they seen each coming back and saying they really want
to do it so I think as you said as Sean said we haven't seen the end of this by
any stretch it's an interesting country to deal with it is great thank you very
much here now with more Michael Mallos a North Korea analyst and author of dear
reader Michael good to have you with us tonight thank you what do you make of
this whole thing well the talks have been breaking down
for a few days now as you mentioned earlier the US Senate advanced team to
Singapore and it turned out that this North Korean counterparts were simply
refusing to tailor calls and to respond them so this is not president Trump
flying off the handle as he's being portrayed by people on the left this is
him responding to being blatantly disrespected and and not having any
communications at a certain point you have to negotiate and this is classic
negotiation you punish bad behavior you reward good behavior and if they're not
going to be returning our calls at a certain point he has to draw the line
all right so I mean what potentially would they agree to you've got the Libya
model on one hand which is a complete denuclearization which obviously
rankles them that idea then you've got the Iran deal model right where you see
sort of an overtime and some agreements but not an agreement to get rid of
everything what are we gonna get whoa anything the more the term Libya models
use those scarier it's going to be for them because if you look what happened
to Qaddafi and how he personally was murdered in the most horrific way this
is something that is a great concern to the Kim family it has been for decades
Kim jong-il used to show this execution of Romanian dictator Ceausescu to all
the party cadres daily the video and says this is what will happen to you if
the government falls down so they're acutely aware of what happens when these
totalitarian dictatorships collapse and the difference between Iran and Libya is
there's a partner country here China so there's no China visa the Iran but there
certainly is a China Beasley North Korea and we have to be concerned with what
China wants and what China would allow do you do you agree with the president
who has a couple of times now said that that second meeting that Kim Jong un
went to have with President Xi something happened there is that why
those channels shut down it's the China certainly has a very
part to play in all this and we don't know what's going on here and frankly I
don't think we should know what's going on here because so much of this is about
allowing kim jongmin to save face if only to force him to do the right thing
wouldn't China want the genial Croatian of North Korea to yes but they also
wouldn't want us to escalate to a total liberalisation of North Korea and
possible societal collapse we're giving them 25 million refugees crossing the
river who don't speak Chinese and don't know how to use a computer that's the
nightmare scenario for China all right what about really quick what about the
mountain that collapsed several months ago is what they blew up today was it
even usable probably not and there are reports of being that this radiation
coming out from all this other stuff and you know in there they do not let just
like rahm emanuel said they don't let a good crisis go to waste
so if something's going to be you know destroyed they might as well say hey
we're doing this because we're the good guys out of the magnet nummy of our
hearts interesting as always Michael thank you very much good to see you
tonight
you
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