jong-un back in february about how much he believes kim jong-un. listen to this. >> one of the things importantly chairman kim promised me last night is regardless he's not going to do testing of rockets and nuclear. not going to do testing. so, you know, i trust him. i take him at his word. i hope that's true. >> he's not going to do testing of rockets. not going to do testing. i take him at his word. what does it tell you that the president of the united states falls for what kim jong-un says? >> he just seems to be an easy mark for dictators who flatter him. it's disgraceful. we can bemoan it, but it's da dangero dangerous. men like kim jong-un, putin, xi jinping see this behavior and learn to take advantage of it to do things no other president would allow them to get away with. we have got to in the united states congress, i think we've got to act to ensure that the world gets a different sense of what america is about and what we stand for. >> do you think it's okay that president trump insulted former vice president joe biden, though he is n

jong-un versus him citing kim jong-un to criticize joe biden. on that latter issue, i think that's totally inappropriate. when the president wants to attack joe biden, he should do so as an american political opponent of joe biden. but to the other point of him in some ways praising kim jong-un, someone who he has both praised and completely vilified -- he called him little rocket man, of course, very famously before. i think there what we see is diplomacy in action and there's a cat and mouse game with kim jong-un of condemnation combined with at times also coaxing and cajoling to try to convince him that his future and north korea's future will be better without nuclear arms in the international community. >> tara, do you see it that way? >> no. you know, what i see is a president who cannot think or do or act in any way other than in his own self-interest. it's memorial day. you know, we should be -- the president of the united states should be honoring the fallen, the men and women who sacrificed for this country to have our freedoms, to all

he's been good for kim jong-un. kim jong-un is still making missiles as we speak. those two despots are endorsing president trump. give it time. we may see erdogan, duterte and what other dictators pile on the from trump train. they know he's good for what they are doing domestically around around the world. >> trying to picture those names on the same bumper sticker. stick around. we have more to talk about on the other side of this break. stick around. we'll be right back. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say "oh we can't beat usaa" we're the webber family. we're the tenney's we're the hayles, and we're usaa members for life. ♪ get your usaa auto insurance quote today. ♪ when crabe stronger...strong, with new nicorette coated ice mint. layered with fla

the president is making a personal appeal to kim jong-un on twitter. he wrote, quote, anything in this very interesting world is possible but i believe kim jong-un realizes the economic opportunity here. he knows that i am with him and does not want to break his promise to me. deal will happen. despite aggressive steps with kim jong-un, president trump remaining optimistic that he could strike a deal to denuclearize north korea though we should pay attention to that portion of the treat where the president says kim jong-un knows that he is with him. it will be curious to see how some of the united states allies in that region, japan and south korea, respond to that statement and also the parents of otto warmbier, the american that was returned to the united states after having been held in captivity in north korea for some time. his parents have been very critical of president trump's personal relationship with kim jong-un in the past. boris sanchez, cnn at the white house. >>> let's take you live to beijing. andrew stevens is there live. first, let's

hall was one of two women put on trial for the poisoning of kim jong. in twenty seventeen that she was convicted last month on. the charge of causing injury of to malaysian prosecutors withdrew the move trying to say should the other accused an indonesian woman was freed in march after all charges against her were dropped well france louis is known for science and color the port where it is was the scene of the crime so to speak a word i want to hold is expected to fly out later today i mean florence with the release of the second woman now does this mean that the case is closed. paul in a way yes this is what it means i mean these two women one people and city were the only people who were standing trial for the murder of kim jong un city ayesha as you mentioned had charges against her dropped in march after intense lobbying by the indonesian government. was offered a lesser charge of causing harm she accepted that lesser charge she pleaded guilty she is now being released after serving time for that lesser charge now these two women have always said t

as president trump praises kim jong-un, a u.s. human rights report paints a grim picture of suffering under north korea's corrupt regime where bribes and extortion are the price for survival. mia i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> breaking news. millions of americans tonight are bracing for severe weather or picking up the pieces from devastating storms. in western ohio, powerful tornadoes destroyed dozens of homes, killing at least one person. more than 50 tornadoes were reported in eight states overnight. in arkansas and oklahoma, there's historic flooding with evacuations and water rescues and more bad weather expected. meantime, president trump may be beginning to feel the heat. he's back at the white house facing heavy criticism after siding with north korea's dictator during his visit to japan. the president excused kim jong-un's latest missile firings and applauded his attack on joe biden. biden says the president's comments are underneath the dignity of the office. i'll spea

kim jong-un is making more weapons. i think kim jong-un wants to ride the trump train all the way through 2020 because it's so good for kim jong-un to have trump in the oval office. >> i don't know that's going to be a bumper sticker. i want to stick with you for one final question because of your expertise. simultaneous with this trip to japan, the trump administration is ratcheting up the presence of troops in the middle east with an eye towards iran. what's your read of the some 1,500 troops deployed to the middle east against the rhetoric. >> i think it may be the tip of the spear. these 1500 troops are largely for maintenance. i don't think they're authorized for combat. they'll probably be to help with the operations and maintenance. if trz keeps escalating countries with iran, policies, we need more troops he said in japan today all he wants is a nuclear deal with iran. he doesn't want regime change. we had a nuclear deal with iran. he violated it. the administration laid out 12 steps that iran lad to take to com

kim jong-un called him a low i.q. idiot and many other things whereas i related the quote of chairman kim as a much softer low i.q. individual who could possibly be upset with that? and with that this reminder. our president travels to the uk and france next monday. then on june 28th he is scheduled to go back to japan for the g-20 meeting including talks with putin of russia and shi of china. with us for our lead off discussion the aforementioned peter baker, for the new york times sumi terri, a former senior analyst at the cin. she was in charge of this region while on the white house national security council. and jeremy bash, former chief house for the former intel committee. peter i ask you at least once a week what just happened. on top of that a subset question, is anyone buying stock in john bolt snn zl well, that's a great question. the whole idea that we don't -- the politics stops at the water's edge has probably been moot for quite a while. it's not the first time this president has been overseas with eith

we know south korea and japan closely watching whatever kim jong-un does. we saw that tweet from president trump,' rosie tweet about saying kim knows he's with him, meaning the president stands with kim, and has faith in the north korean leader. what do people in the region think about the president's overtures? are they constructive? >> it was extraordinary if you put it in context with tweets not that long ago from trump talking about north korean leader, but there has been a muted response and certainly no direct response to that tweet from donald trump. probably the strongest we've heard has come from the south koreans, which is not surprisingly, natalie. voicing serious concerns that the north koreans were violating the treaty that the two koreas were working towards to de-escalate tensions on the korean peninsula. the japanese have been pretty quiet about it. that is in part due to the fact that the japanese and south korean foreign ministers did have calls. there's a lot of diplomatic activity on the telephone between the u.s. secretary of state and

kim jong-un knows that. it does seem to be that's what has been playing for sympathy of the country to take a tough position against the united states. >> nic robertson, thank you so much. >>> so, what does this later launch mean for an already fragile relationship between the u.s. and north korea? that's next. democrats threatening to hold the u.s. attorney general in contempt if he does not turn over redacted or unredacted information in the mueller report by monday morning. how is this likely to play out? we'll discuss. ♪ this year, ancestry isn't celebrating mother's day. we're celebrating colleen's day. julia's day. marie's day. and all the one-of-a-kind women we call "mom." ancestrydna tells a story as unique as she is... ...with an engaging new experience that can help her uncover rich family details. give her ancestrydna for ...denise's day... . and at just $59, grab one for jeff's day, too. order a kit at ancestry.com with a lot of other young couples. then we noticed something...strange. oh, coul

this is kim jong-un. but on the other hand, you know, it's not surprising in the sense that president trump doesn't think about the things he's saying as sort of, what does this mean for the presidency, what does this mean broadly for diplomacy? what message am i sending as the president of the united states agreeing with the leader of north korea over, you know, his view of a former vice president. he thinks, ah, great, kim jong-un is on my team. we both agree that joe biden is a low-iq individual. how great to have another person in my corner. and president trump, and this was true when he was a candidate, too, doesn't really care who you are or what you believe or what you think or what you've done in the past, as long as you are supporting him and you are vocal in that support. and this is one of these things that has not changed about him. >> and i would say, as an ally, it doesn't -- as an ally of the japanese, it doesn't help them to flaunt the fact that, oh, we're much further away than the north

president trump is now using kim jong-un as a surrogate. president trump is pretty cool with vladimir putin saying bad things about democrats, so at this point what kind of people are supporting president trump overseas as his 2020 candidate and they know joe biden has a much stronger record on north korea than president trump does. >> it's schoolyard geopolitics. fascinating and troubling stuff. boris, you're on the ground in tokyo. while the focus on north korea and china, there is an escalation in iran. the president making comments and troop movements over the weekend and trying to see if japan can help bridge a dialogue. what's been the scene on the ground with the president and iran and trying to get japan in on those? >> it's certainly an interesting development having shinzo abe try to intervene and broker a negotiation, a discussion between president trump and the leadership in iran. it's unclear that will happen. we know it's something president trump has been looking for in the past. actually used the iran knonucle deal on joe bi

kim jong-un called him a low i.q. idiot and many other things whereas i related the quote of chairman kim as a much softer low i.q. individual. who could possibly be upset with that? and with that this reminder, our president travels to the uk and france next monday. then on june 28th he is scheduled to go back to japan for the g-20 meeting including talks with putin of russia and xi of china. with us for our leadoff discussion on a back to work tuesday night, the aforementioned peter baker for "the new york times," sumi terri, a former senior analyst at the cin. she was in charge of this region while on the white house national security council. and jeremy bash, former chief house at cia and pentagon as well as former chief counsel for the former intel committee. peter, i ask you at least once a week what just happened. on top of that a subset question, is anyone buying stock in john bolton? >> well, that's a great question. look, the whole idea that we don't -- the politics stops at the water's edge has probably bee

kim il sung was expert at during the cold war right and i think the nuclear weapons give kim jong un the turn kim space to basically play the countries around them around him off against each other and see what kind of deals come out from the mix and if he doesn't get anything then he just hunkers down he just waits with his nuclear weapons until all of us adjust to that reality and i take it in beijing how is this going to play out do you think are we going to see a deal any time soon in trump's first of the remaining days of his first and whether of course he's reelected or not remains to be seen but we going to see a deal sometime in the future. no i don't think so not not with this particular cast of characters and i don't really think that i'm meeting with even if it is had will have any bearing fruit the idea of who is a a nationalist who a revisionist who's trying to resurrect the glory of. world war two saying doing all of these things changing the constitution so he can have an army so that he can pay billions of dollars and war reparatory reparations when they're not even w

prank show when they smeared poison on kim jong noms face court here on c.c.t.v. at kuala lumpur airport police say five north korean men supervised the assassination and a car registered in rejoin chills name drove a group of them from the airport. we certainly believe that rick you'll still have the hand in doing this because he's a chemist's in fact when he was interview to follow the money in he account and the question is ready to get on his money out reason apartment police found thirty eight thousand dollars in cash for phones five computer devices and a bottle of chloride offices didn't test any of his belongings for v.x. nerve agent and only interviewed him once the police be not very i was the object if in that sense they're not very competed malaysian police let's rejoin told go after two weeks you flew to freedom in china because north korea had seized malaysian diplomats and demanded a prisoner swap there was a golden opportunity to hold them accountable so we have completely lost that they'll think we can ever get to the bottom of the case. documents

could that embolden kim jong-un, do you think? >> absolutely. it's almost an invitation to keep it up. on its face, it's clearly a violation of u.n. resolutions, calling for a complete halt on missile testing by the north. whether they be short-range missiles, intermediate missiles or long-range icbms. this development is clearly alarming to south korea and to japan. and is developing a capability that we had hoped would be frozen. it exposes the complete vapid nature of the two summits that mr. trump went to with mr. kim jong-un, that were ill-prepared, had no real rationale, and instead of producing a denuclearized korean peninsula, they actually accelerated the north korean nuclear development program. other than that, it was a success. >> and this is a threat obviously to u.s. troops in the region. south korea, japan, and so on. congressman, the president is directly contradicting his national security adviser, john bolton on all of this. from your vantage point on the other end of pennsylvania avenue, who is calling the shots? president tru

he the president thinks he can convince kim jong-un to do this. he's happy to dis his national security adviser, diss japan and he's not having second thoughts about it, but maybe others are. >> pam brown asked him if he had confidence in john bolton and he nodded and said yes. i'm sorry i interrupted you. >> i was going to say past week before senators left for the memorial day recess i spoke to republican senators, republican senators behind the scenes unsettled about the entire way the president have approached north korea have given him a lot of space to publicly or rhetorically try to figure something out. this was before what we saw in tokyo today and one republican senator said made clear he doesn't see an end game. what is the end game here, and this has been going on here. they understand what the president is trying to do, perhaps has a significant different negotiating style, but what i think you hear right now on capitol hill, including from some of the president's closest allies is quietly tell me how this ends, and no one knows right

>> reporter: he's keeping the door open yet for more talks with kim jong-un. that's a fair assessment. when you look at how that trip by president trump who by the way is now 30,000 feet above the pacific ocean, he's headed home as of a few hours ago. we were at an airbase south of tokyo where he met troops, signed hats, delivered these remarks to them and then headed out. here in japan, the big headline on north korea is that president trump backs a potential summit, not with himself but between prime minister shinzo abe and kim jong-un. that's now it's being received locally here. the headline for japanese president trump does support the idea of unconditional talks between abe and kim. that's something that has not happened yet and something kim jong-un has not been open to. you're right there's a couple of controversies that overshadow this trip most notably the president saying he believes those missile tests simply don't matter pointing to his people it violates u.n. security council resolution but not the president himself. the president has been pre-oc

that's what she's saying about kim jong-un, you just heard what cindy warmbier had to say about kim jong-un, one of the brutal dictators. >> this is a president who put on the toughest sanctions in the history of the world on north korea. the president understands the challenges. the president deeply understands this. we're working towards finding a path forward with chairman kim. to denuclearize his country diplomatically. you recall at the beginning of the administration the president spoke about fire and fury, we understand all the challenges. we know who the north koreans are. we're working to see if there's a possibility before we go another direction, want to see if there's any possibility we can achieve this outcome. >> let's turn to venezuela, national security adviser john bolton suggested earlier this week, that maduro was about to fall. openly called for maduro's inner circle to defect. but opposition leader guaido acknowledged yesterday that he miscalculated the level of support that he thought he had within the venezuelan military. was this an intelligence failure for the unite

kim jong-un's economic potential and will do nothing to interfere or end it. and what does it say to you that a launch that we just saw is being treated by the president as no big deal? >> i mean if you look at what is happening here, the president has created a myth, the myth started when he first met kim jong-un and he got off the aircraft and told us, we are safer now, despite the fact that kim hadn't destroyed any nuclear stock, hadn't destroyed missile development facilities and hadn't destroyed missiles and hadn't told us what he had. and two and a half years in, he staked his ego on making a deal with kim jong-un and despite walking away from meetings that he could cut a deal with kim jong-un and second, the president has shown us he cannot acknowledge weaknesses or mistakes or he can't tell us that kim jong unk was wrong or the conversations with him was wrong and he can't say russian intervened in an election and he is doubling down and looking at his options and saying the deal was not working and we're not safer and dealing with kim jong-un. i don't

so this meeting that kim jong-un had with vladimir putin has really given kim jong-un perhaps a sense here that there are others around him that support him, and that he can play on the divisions between the united states and russia and china as well. by sort of, whatever these projectiles were, he knew that this was going to be a message that would be heard in washington, but he also kind of feels here that perhaps russia's got his back on this. a little bit. not entirely. a little bit. so perhaps that is part of the equation here. they don't stabilizing that kim jong-un is now undertaking. >> nic, i wonder from your point of view the way president trump has tweeted about, it does it only embolden kim jong-un? it certainly doesn't threaten him when the president say, you know, you're still my guy, you know, we're still friends, so to speak. >> you know, it reinforces the message to kim jong-un that president trump has got skin in the game. and president trump has an election coming up. and president trump doesn't want to be seen to be wrong-footed or outsmarted by kim jong-un. so you

kim il sung was expert at during the cold war right and i think the nuclear weapons give kim jong un the turn kim space to basically play the countries around them around him off against each other and see what kind of deals come out from the mix and if he doesn't get anything then he just hunkers down and he just waits with his nuclear weapons until all of us adjust to that reality and i take it in beijing how is this going to play out do you think are we going to see a deal any time soon in trump's first of the remaining days of his first and whether of course he's reelected or not remains to be seen but we going to see a deal sometime in the future. no i don't think so not not with this particular cast of characters and i don't really think that meeting with even if it is had will have any bearing fruit the idea of who is a nationalists who are a revisionist who's trying to resurrect the glory of. world war two saying doing all of these things changing the constitution so he can have an army so that he can pay billions of dollars and war reparatory reparations when they're not eve

kim il sung was expert at during the cold war right and i think the nuclear weapons give kim jong un the turn kim space to basically play the countries around them around him off against each other and see what kind of deals come out from the mix and if he doesn't get anything then he just hunkers down he just waits with his nuclear weapons until all of us adjust to that reality and i take it in beijing how is this going to play out do you think how we're going to see a deal any time soon in trump's first of the remaining days of his first term whether of course he's reelected or not remains to be seen but i'll be going to see a deal sometime in the future. no i don't think so not not with this particular cast of characters and i don't really think that a meeting with a even if it is had will have any bearing fruit the idea of who is a a nationalist who a revisionist who's trying to resurrect the glory of. world war two saying doing all of these things changing the constitution so he can have an army so that he can pay billions of dollars and war reparatory reparations when they're n

kim jong-un has broken his promise to the united states. had he launched project iams. he also broke his promise to president moon of south korea, because he pledged to end animosity, so it's clear the president is doing what he does best, operating based on a hunch he has, and his emsense of a love affair with kim jong-un and frankly undermining his home team in doing so. >> how concerned are you that this is a precursor to launching something else? missiles in, you know, the short term. >> we don't know whether these projectiles were missile capable or missile ready. we'll have to wait and see what the official statement is, but a lot of what happens next is the -- having a response or taking some kind of reciprocal measure to tell him he cannot get away with illegal activity is not necessarily pavesing walt to go to war with north korea. there's a way to publicly and privately communicate that this behavior won't stand, that we will reciprocate in kind, but the ultimate goals remains the peaceful denuclearization process. any intelligence assessment or any basket goo

this trial has done is it has helped shed light on a few things such as the fact that kim jong numb when he died was found to have been carrying on him vols antidote to the vx nerve agent that killed him suggesting that he had real fears and real concerns about being met. but the ultimate conclusion of the trial that no one was convicted of the murder of kim jong il also leaves many questions unanswered and it also means that a very brazen murder committed in broad daylight in front of many witnesses captured on c.c.t.v. video goes unpunished. some of the highest profile far right voices in the u.s. have been kicked off facebook and instagram the social media giant announced the ban as it comes under growing pressure to curb hate speech while reynolds reports. facebook and instagram have permanently banned several prominent far right anti-semitic and anti muslim provocateur to or there is a concerted a social media empire you can't concentrate yo host alex jones conspiracy theorist who claims mass shootings like the one at a high school in parklane florida last year where seventeen

i remember not too long ago, president trump describing kim jong-un as rocket man. now all of a sudden he's downplaying these missile tests. what do you make of the president's posture? >> ryan, to use a bad pun here, it's not rocket science, whether kim jong-un did or did not violate security council resolutions. kim jong-un, according to john bolton and to the japanese, fired short range ballistic missiles. that means they have intelligence that shows what these projectiles were. if they were in fact short range missiles, that violates a u.n. security council resolutions. president trump is convinced that staying with kim is the best course of action personally because he doesn't want to admit that kim jong-un is breaking the law and is a global menace. at this point the question is what else is president trump going to let kim jong-un get away with. and there's a juxtaposition. here mike pence, vice president pence was just laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier, marking fallen soldiers, while president trump is in japan saying that these short range

han sol, andim he's the son of kim jong-un's half-brother, the man who kim jong-un ordered murdered at kuala lumpur airport. westernis father's death father's death -- kim jong-un, who has no sons, may consider the young man a threat to his continued rule. kim han sol is western educated and speaks fluent english. he has called his uncle a dictator and expressed sympathy for the people of north korea, a threat indeed. one final example of recent kidnappings, last fall north korea's ambassador to italy and his wife defected. they left behind in rome their teenage daughter, who reportedly is disabled. four days later, the daughter disappeared. she eventually turned up in pyongyang and she is believed to have been kidnapped from italy by north korean agents. her seizure has been interpreted as a warning to her parents not to go public with the story of their defections. early in his presidency, president trump spoke about north korea's horrific record on human rights. he invited cindy and fred warmbier to the state of the union address. he and mrs. trump met in tokyo with the mother of th

i do not have to speculate about that because kim jong—un told us about that because kim jong—un told us when he delivered his first address since the summit. he warned there would be corresponding acts from north korea for the us pushing ahead with military exercises in south korea. he was unsatisfied with the state of diplomacy. this was clearly telegraphed by north korea and now we are simply seeing it happen. i was not surprised with the news emerging. what do they hope will happen now? are they trying to goad the us and the international community, trying to bring them back to the table? kim jong-un has set in place a time. he has told donald trump that by the end of the year the us needs to change its approach to north korea. something we should also keep in mind is that these type of missile tests are also intended to show stakeholders inside north korea that kim jong—un is a strong leader determined to maintain the security of the country. we have just seen to launchers in the span of two weeks. a previous weapons tests, kim jong—un was deciding how advanced the weapons we

kim jong-un never -- >> it's all personal. >> but kim jong-un never made any promises to him. this is what -- a lot of it is bizarre, but this is really the most concerning because kim jong-un never made any promises to this arm, and president trump keeps thinking by cajoling and this friendship with him. but if he listens to some of these advisers that know north korea a little bit better, john bolton among them, he would know that's not true. i think president trump gave up a lot of leverage. >> i also think it's interesting -- i'm not sure we'd pay as much attention to this particular tweet if he weren't in the region of the world that's affected by north korea. these missiles based on what i read were not ones that would have reached japanese waters and japan. but we know they have the capability, right. it means he has brought the issue toward the forefront. >> it makes it more incendiary. >> they could have break throughs with trade. there are things the president wants to do, the white house wants to do, instead all we're going to do is talk about north korea and north

. >>> rising tensions in north korea where kim jong-un test fired into the sea. allies within range of the weapons down played the significance of the test. south korea is urging the u.s. to respond with caution. president trump responded with a tweet today, characteristically saying kim jong-un recognized the great potential of north korea and will do nothing to interfere or end it. "the new york times" reporting the weapons launch orchestrated by mr. kim to pressure president trump to ease sanctions. trump and kim have been at a stalemate since the summit in hanoi. u.s. ambassador to south korea under the george w. bush administration. first, i was to speak with charlie savage, new york times reporter and msnbc contributor. thanks for being here. trump and kim have met twice. the president tweeted kim made promises to him. how much does the president have in this personal connection he has with kim and are signs this may be eroding a bit. >> that's been the question all along. president trump seems to think he can forge a personal bond with kim jong-un and it w

so if you're kim jong-un, you realize that you've got a lot of latitude. now you've built an alliance with president trump attacking joe biden. so you are interfering in the u.s. political culture, and the president of the united states is encouraging you. and that's a really dangerous message, not just for america, but for the world. >> what's your take on that, tim, specifically? do you see it the same way? >> oh, absolutely. first of all, there is a problem when the united states doesn't speak with one voice. so jamie was just mentioning the fact that the national security adviser saying one thing and the president of the united states is saying something else. ordinarily we would say that the president of the united states speaks for the entire country, and that should be the case. but when it comes to foreign policy as complex as our north korean policy, one wonders who is really speaking for the united states. >> well, the president will say it's all me, right? we've been doing this over and over again since back in the rex tillerson days. >> but ana

is the president still throwing himself in with kim jong un on this one? >> reporter: yeah, dave, that was one of the most stunning moments of this press conference, the president siding with the north korean dictator, saying that he believes that kim jong un is correct in saying that joe biden is a low iq individual. now, the president quickly pivoted to iran in that question saying that the iran nuclear deal is a symbol of joe biden's mental incompetence, essentially. the president made news on iran, saying he's in no rush to replace the iran nuclear deal which the united states pulled out of, making news that he does not believe a regime change has to happen for a peacefl future between the united states and iran. >> all right. no shortage of news, boris sanchez live in tokyo, thank you my friend. appreciate it. >>> in european parliament elections, centrists are the big losers. the vote chwhich saw the highes participation in 25 years, boosted skeptics and proeuropean leftists. phil black is live at london's 10 downing street. what's the message from v

>> first of all, i think kim jong-un, or chairman kim, is looking to create a nation that has great strength economically. i think he's very much -- i talk to him a lot about it, and he's very much into the fact that he believes like i do that north korea has tremendous economic potential, like perhaps few other developing nations anywhere in the world. and i think he is looking to develop that way. he knows that with nuclear, that's never going to happen. only bad can happen. he understands that. he is a very smart man. he gets it well. so i think that he is -- he is going to try at some point, i'm in no rush at all. the sanctions remain. we have our hostages back. we, as you know, are continuing to get the remains. a lot of good things are happening. and very importantly, there's been no nuclear testing for two years. i looked at a chart the other day. during past administrations, there were many numbers that were have high, 10, 12, 18, having to do with missile launches and nuclear testing. for the first two years, on the bottom it had zero and zero. so i am very happy with the way it's g

to kim jong-un trump writing this, quote, anything in this very interesting world is possible, but i believe kim jong-un fully realizes the great economic potential in north korea and will do nothing to interfere or end it. he also knows that i am with him and does not want to break his

kim jong—un has set in place a time. he has told donald trump that by the end of the year the us needs to change its approach to north korea. something we should also keep in mind is that these type of missile tests are also intended to show stakeholders inside north korea that kim jong—un is a strong leader determined to maintain the security of the country. we have just seen to launchers in the span of two weeks. a previous weapons tests, kim jong—un was deciding how advanced the weapons were. it is about domestic as well as us. we hear about food shortages and in north korea and that cannot be going very well for kim jong—un in terms of the politics of that? that's right. we heard that national defence strength will prevent the recurrence of the famine the country suffered in the 1990s and of course last year ‘s harvest was disappointing and now we are seeing credible reporting that hundreds of thousands of north koreans are under food stress so this does band of the drums of nationalism and shows that kim jon

and north korea brought up the issue of of duction with kim jong-un -- abduction with kim jong-un and i would like to thank him for having done that. last week, a prime minister visited the u.s. from south korea and they reaffirmed their commitment to working closely in order to resolve the abduction issue. president trump offered his full cooperation, which was very encouraging to us. government's policy with north korea is that we need to resolve all of the outstanding concerns, including of duction's, the nuclear issue -- abduction, the nuclear issues and the missile issues. would like to discuss our agenda today. first of all, we want you to hear direct testimony from the families of the victims so that you may understand their anguish. representative of the have a families, we person from japan. was a relative of a woman of ducted on her way to school -- abducted on her way to school. neither of them have come home as of yet. the u.s., we have cindy, otto,s the mother of who died after being withheld by north korea for 17 months and released in a coma. thelso have michael, who is

kim il sung was expert at during the cold war right and i think the nuclear weapons give kim jong un the turn kim space to basically play the countries around them around him off against each other and see what kind of deals come out from the next and if he doesn't get anything then he just hunkers down and he just waits with his nuclear weapons until all of us adjust to that reality and i take it in beijing how is this going to play out do you think are we going to see a deal any time soon in trump's first of the remaining days of his first term whether of course he's reelected or not remains to be seen but i'll be going to see a deal sometime in the future. no i don't think so not not with this particular cast of characters and i don't really think that a meeting with even if it is had will have any bearing fruit the idea of a who is a a nationalist to a revisionist who is trying to resurrect the glory of. world war two saying doing all of these things changing the constitution so he can have an army so that he can pay billions of dollars and war reparatory reparations when they're

to go with kim jong-ujong-un's version, of how he sees biden, we have to stop for a moment. we have to stop in that he is believing kim jong-un, or thinking he hasn't broken his promise about testing missiles, despite what president trump's national security adviser john bolton believes, that it was a ballistic missile test. these moments we can't gloss over and say, okay, well, on to the next strange thing. of course the democratic candidates are talking about it. >> alisyn, this is obviously not the first time that president trump has sort of problbroken td norm, the idea that politics stops at the water's edge. this is something he's done before, but it is particularly striking, you know, given the ties and connection to kim jong-un and how he did it this weekend. you know, the president's operating under the premise that there are all these rules in american politics that people say you can't do, but they don't apply to him and he can do them. so the bet that he's making is that his base and enough of the voters who voted for him last time are not going to be so turned o

jong-un. >> kim jong-un? stable genius. >> fox news. >> fox news, i'm not -- i'm not going to be at cnn. >> 20 20. >> 2020? >> when we elect the next president? >> i was thinking of the show. >> barbara walters. 2020. >> break up. >> joe biden. >> affectionate. touchy feely. >> elizabeth warren. >> scold. >> game of thrones. >> "game of thrones"? preshient. >> beyonce. >> i'm not going to -- what am i going to say about -- i don't even think about things like that. >> queen b. >> i know. i was going to say queen, but then i'm like yeah. i mean, jesus. >> i don't want to get you in trouble. because congrats, you're engaged. >> oh, yes. >> so marriage. >> beyonce? oh, marriage? a dream come true. >> is she watching right now? >> thanks. i came up on one year. >> if she's not, one of her friends is. >> colin quinn, good luck. >> thanks, brooke. >> thank you. colin quinn, make sure you watch the comedy special that's bigger than both sides. red state blue state premiers tonight 9:00 some on cnn. >>> during his tr

the current kim jong-un regime. guy and gordon, thank you for being with us. gordon, first with you, how do you read the short-range projectiles as they're called? is this a nudge to the u.s. or more provocative? >> this certainly is a nudge to the u.s. but also to south korea. because moon jae-in has been trying to broker this piece. and what kim jong-un is saying, look, you shouldn't be working with the americans. when north korea starts to send messages it can start a cycle of circulation. the kim family has used violence, status quo, it finds to be acceptable. this could get pretty ugly and it could get ugly fast. >> guy, how do you see this, is this an attempt, as paula mentioned, to potentially push the u.s. beyond their current strategy of all or nothing full denuclearization before any sanction relief? maybe another summit? >> i think what's happening here, this is right out of the north korean flight book. it is an escalation, but not a giants escalation. the north koreans watch what's happening in the u.s.

while we wait to learn exactly what was launched president trump is giving kim jong-un the benefit of the doubt. the president also revealing he had a good phone call with vladimir putin. they talked about venezuela and north korea, but did not talk about russia's election meddling, something that's still happening according to intel chief. >> reporter: did you tell him not to meddle in -- >> excuse my. i'm talking i'm answering this question. you are very rude. so we had a good conversation about many different things, okay? >> reporter: did you ask him not to meddle in the next election? >> well didn't discuss it. >>> boris sanchez is live at the white house. on this issue of north korea, the president is publicly voicen confidence in kim jong-un, even in the face of this news that they fired several projectiles overnight. >> reporter: that's right, ana, a fascinating response, especially when you consider his previous responses to prove indications from north korea. remember, that famous line about fire and fury the likes of which the world has never seen, this is really a subdued

i want to stress here that it is kim jong-il that is the director of the abduction and his son kim jong-un was not involved. our prime minister at the time met with kim jong-il and they signed the pyongyang declaration in february of 2002. in accordance with that, japan and north korea, if we were to normalize relations, then the wealth of natural resources in north korea would be very attractive and the basis for potential economic development in north korea and chairman kim should be aware of that. the u.s. and japan must cooperate on this issue. currently there's a very strong relationship of trust between president trump and prime minister abe. we see this as an excellent opportunity for us. president trump brought up the abduction issue with chairman kim at both of their summits. we have now moved as of this month into the new era in japan korean central news agency, north korea is criticizing japan on a daily basis. and what that means is that the domestic environment in north korea must be very severe at the moment. i heard this from someone who visited north korea recently, but app

by being nice to kim jong-un. >> reporter: in its new statement, kim's regime voiced, "grave concern the that the u.s. had conducted so-called subcritical nuclear tests in february" even though kim said last year he had conducted his own such tests. a subcritical nuclear test ensures all the components that make the bomb work like the trigger are functional without letting the bomb actually explode. north korea also slams trump's national security adviser john bolton and secretary of state mike pompeo in the new statement, saying they, "have insulted the dignity of our stream leadership and spitted out abusive language to north korea." >> i think that is an effort to separate president trump from his advisers. what kim may be doing, one, is mirror imaging. he got bad advice from his own advisers. he thinks president trump is getting bad advice from his, but i think he would really like to purge bolton and pompeo from trump's circle there. >> reporter: tonight veteran diplomats say they worry president trump is so invested in good relations with the dictator that he now can't get toug

intelligence. >> kim jong-un made a statement that joe biden is a low i.q. individual. he probably is based on his record. i think i agree with him on that. >> kaitlyn collins is traveling with the president. she is there in tokyo and kaitlyn, tell me more about the president's comments and how they are received especially in japan talking about north korea. >> well, brooke, you heard the president say it doesn't matter. but one person that these missiles do matter to is the prime minister. shinzo abe has been concerned about this and far long time encouraged president trump to keep a hard line against north korea because as you noted, these are the short range missiles. and they're of greater concern to japan who was a lot closer to north korea than the united states. so to see the president brush off these missiles while speaking just feet away from the prime minister was pretty stunning to see. because not only was the prime minister over here but john bolton was just a few feet away from the president sitting behind him. and when he got here in tokyo sho

trump's efforts to get kim jong un to denuclearize. wh let's go live to tokyo and bring in cnn's ivan watson. good to see you, my friend. is this a good cop bad cop dynamic or is the president just siding with kim jong un, or is there an actual fracture? >> reporter: it's really tough to tell. it's very clear that president trump is doubling down. he is all in on his personal diplomatic initiative with kim jong un, and he's willing to overlook things that -- like short range ballistic missile launches, that took place less than three weeks ago from north korea, and as a result you had this strange situation wherein this very restricted bilateral meeting where there were four american and japanese officials in the room. the japanese prime minister, john bolton, the white house national security adviser and president trump, president trump was the only one in the room that does not publicly believe that those missile launches were violations of united nations security council resolutions. and so he said that on a stage next to the japane

but also his language on kim jong un. the president is getting unfair criticism from kim jong un. behind the scenes, from my understanding, and the people i talked to, the big issue is kim jong un has not yet decided whether to do with president trump or double down on the old game extortion. and as long as there is a chance of getting this diplomatic track to work, i think is president trump to make what he can. >> bret: japan part of the trip was his success from the white house point of view. >> tom: i think it was about the national security establishment that the united states has their back. and you sold the president visiting the war fair vessel but also in terms of saying listen, we have and we will not sacrifice you to get a deal with kim. >> bret: here is iran and response from iran. >> i'm not looking to hurt iran at all. i'm look to have iran say no nuclear weapons. and i think iran come i can come think iran has economic potential. and i look forward to letting them get back to the stage. it has a chance to be a great country with the same leadership. we are not looki

for instance, kim jong un had his half brother, kim jong-nam, murdered. that was in the kuala lumpur airport. what this group did was it extracted and saved -- because these people were going to be killed -- they extracted and saved his relatives including his son, because they were targeted for assassination. and so this group has been able to do some very important things that governments have not wanted to do and have not been able to do. and also we know that the group took thumb drives out of the north korean embassy in madrid. they gave them to the fbi, and this is important, because north korean embassies are really centers of crime. north korea raises money through criminal activities which are centered on the embassies. i'm sure that we found a lot of information about how north korea launders money through europe because of the information that this group gave to federal authorities. eric: so, i mean, the fbi, if they apparently had this material, instead of thank them, they turned around and put the handcuffs on them. and, i mean, they put a wa

trump: first of all, let me say kim jong-un or chairman kim as some people say is looking to create a nation that has great strength economically. i talked to him a lot about it. fact very much into the that he believes like i do that north korea has tremendous economic potential. like perhaps few other developing nations anywhere in the world. i think that he is looking to develop that weight. he knows that with nuclear that will never happen. only bad can happen. he understands that. he is a very smart man. he gets it well. going to try at some point -- i am in no rush at all. the sanctions remain. we have our hostages back. we come as you know, are getting the remains, continuing to get the remains. there has been no nuclear testing for two years. i look at a chart the other day. during the past administration, there were many numbers that were very high like 10, 12, 18 having to do with missile launches and nuclear testing. for the last two years on the bottom, it had zero and zero. so i'm very happy with the way it is going. intelligent people agree with me. >> not bothered at al

jong un coddling kim joe moon i don't understand the president's strategy contradicting his own secretary of state national security adviser and our policy why are these traditions so important for those who who are younger generations who don't know this longstanding convention of not criticizing or commenting about domestic policy when you're overseas why is that important. because i think what we have to do is when a president goes overseas or a foreign american leader goes overseas he or she is representing the american people not the republican or democratic party you're a statesman in the old tradition of politics stops at the water's edge in other words do all the domestic fighting within the united states but me you go outside you don't criticize an american president or a fellow american and the president not only criticize joe biden a distinguished vice president but he said that he agreed with kim jong moon you know who doesn't have the best reputation is kind of a you. when rights violator in his assessment came german's of the vice president you know just brought tangles at t