be sure to follow me on facebook, i a gram and twitter. i'm watters and this i president trump: there has been no nuclear test. there has been no long-range ballistic test. he gave us back our hostages and a lot of good things are happening there. i can't tell you exactly, but they did respond very favorably. reporter: history could unfold in the next couple hours as president trump gets ready to visit the demilitarized zone between north and south score ria. president trump extend an inhave i case via twitter for north korean president kim jong-un to meet him at the dmz, and he

expressed optimism that the meeting might actually happen. president trump: i'm going to the dmz. i understand they want to meet. i would love to say hello. it will be short. but we are in territory that's very close. we don't have to take long trips to countries. let's see what happens. they are trying to work it out. reporter: at this moment and it's sunday afternoon in korea. they are expected to hold a live news conference moments from now. you can see the podium set up there. we'll bring it to you live once it begins. there is a lot on the agenda the next two hours including the mystery. mr. kim take president trump up

on his offer? joining us, fox news chief white house correspondent, john roberts. any indication as to whether chairman kim will show up? >> things have been developing from yesterday afternoon when the president put out that tweet this morning. and every minute goes by here, there is a new development before the president went into that lunch meating with moon jae-in. i see they were both in that meeting. now stating down waiting for them to come out. the president said they were in the final stages of putting this thing together. i would be willing to wager a dollar when they come out, moon jae-in and the president will announce they will be meeting with kim jong-un in the dmz. i think they just have to dot a

couplicss and cross a couple ts. south korean media saying they are going to meet for 5-7 minutes in the security area. the dmz is a wide swath that separates north from south korea. but there is an area 40 minute north of seoul. you will remember the photo and video from april 27 of last year when moon jae-in and kim jong-un met right there where the border comes together and kim walked across the border into south korea into the peace house and held talks. that was the beginning of the talks to get president trump together with kim jong-un. president trump said to his aide, that's the picture i want. i want kim jong-un walking

across that border meeting me. but he was told logistically, you can't do it to support a presidential summit, which is why it was moved to singapore. but it looks like president trump will get that picture of he and kim jong-un standing there at the dmz. one of them will walk across the border to greet the other one. but in the press conference in osaka after the g20 just before he left here, i said to the president, if this meeting with kim comes together, would you be willing to step across the border into north korea? he said i would feel totally comfortable with it. it would be historic. he's the first american president to ever meet with a leader of north korea and he would become the first president

ever to set foot on north korean soil. jon: potential history making but the president seems unperturbed about the possibility that kim jong-un might not show up. reporter: when you are dealing with north korea there are a lot of variables. and there are variables when you try to get to the dmz. the first time the president was here, he early in the morning tried to fly up to the dmz. he wanted to go see it. moon jae-in had driven up there and he was waiting for him. the helicopter got most of of the way up there. but the ceilings were too low and they couldn't land the aircraft. the president was very disappointed about that. he made himself the promise the next time he was in south korea if things lined up he would go

up to the dmz. the montana behind me is in a little bit of haze. so if the weather hold as it is, president trump, moon jae-in and kim jong-un should have a brief trilateral meeting. south korean media is saying it will last between 5 to 7 minutes. the president said it might not be anything more than a handshake. but it means a lot. when you look at the dynamic between the president and kim jong-un and the dynamic between moon jae-in and kim jong-un, you have that trilateral meeting that could force things down the road. south korea has its own relationship with north korea. the united states has lands for north korea. if they come together like that they could potentially move

things further along the road than just a one-on-one meeting. even though it's only going to be less than 10 minutes. who knows. it could be two hours. he wants to cross the dmz. let's go over to peace house. what's interest being covering this white house is you just never know. we knew the president was going to the dmz. but even his closest aide didn't know he was going to send out that tweet i righting kim to come to the dmz. jon: we expect the news conference with president trump and moon jae-in to begin any moment now. we saw his daughter take her

seat so it will start soon. as far as back as it go, it sometimes gets covered up but it take a back burner to the mystery of dealing with the north. >> the president talk about the economic miracle of south korea when he was here in november of 2017. i was standing in the same position watching the president address the sout -- the south kn parliament. he said look what's happening south of your border. south korea is the fourth largest economy in asia, the 11th largest in the world. they are shipping product all over the world. president trump is saying, you get rid of your nuclear program and join the community of

nations globally, and that could happen in north korea, too. the president is always careful to say, with the current regime. but the president even though it gets overshadowed by what's going on between the president and north korea and the threat of nuclear conflagration, the president does pay a lot of tribute to what's going on in south korea. jon: we have come quite a ways from the fire and fury remarks president trump made early in his time in office. he's now on a much friendlier footing with kim jong-un and with moon jae-in, the president of south korea from whom we are about to hear as he speaks with the president at this news

conference. >> we'll first hear the opening remarks and move on to questions and answers. opening remarks will be given first by president jae-in. >> i tend my warmest welcome to president trump from the republic of korea. the korean peninsula together with president trump has become the land [inaudible] since the declaration of armistice the united states and north korea will be meeting for the first time in history, the leaders of theouts and north korea will be

standing face to face at the symbol of division and make handshakes for peace. we'll continue to communicate with each other in dialogue, we can move forward the best situation. this is something we'll be able to see. south and north will be able to be confident about peace and the world can cheer on president trump and chairman kim with high expectations. what we need here is enduring peace on korean peninsula. i hope that president trump will go down in history as the president that has achieved peace on the korean peninsula. peace requires more courage and conflict. i would like to extend my appreciation to the true leaders for being so brave and i'm overwhelmed with emotion because we have been able to proof the way toward peace for the korean

peninsula. it's the only option for achieving complete denuclearization of the korean peninsula. president trump and i are on the same page when it comes to denuclearization and we share common goals. for normalization of relations committed to in the singapore agreement we concur it will be vitally important. i hope that there will be a promise made between the leaders of the three countries together with the people of korea. and thought only the security

for the u.s. alliance has become a comprehensive alliance that expresses cooperation and security on global issues. the u.s. alliance is working as the linchpin for regional peace and security. we decided to continue in coordination. i believe this is a victory for both countries. our two leaders have agreed to further accelerate the momentum to expand trade and investment and further expand the alliance to a mutually alliance. the asia-pacific region is a core region for peace and prosperity. under the principles of openness, be cluesiveness and

transparency i believe korea's new policy and strategy can find common ground. recently we shared concerns regarding the attack on the oil tankers in the gulf of oman and the tensions in the middle east. the freedom of passage and transit in the gulf of oman is important for national security and energy. i have high regard for the careful restraint showed by president trump. we agreed to cooperate for stability in the middle east. president trump and i will not forget the victory and spirit of the alliance. we have once again reaffirmed our common objective and strategies. i'm glad and heartened by this. going forward we'll continue to work closely together and be

frank and open in our discussions to develop the rk-u.s. alliance. president trump you are the peacemaker of the korean peninsula. i hope this meeting will bring hope to the people of south and north korea and will be a milestone in the history of humankind towards peace. i want to extend welcome to president trump to korea. our friendship will continue to grow deep and greener. president trump: i'm going to make a very short statement because we are going to the dmz border, and i will be meeting with chairman kim.

i look forward to it have much. i look forward to developing a good relationship. we understand each other. i think he understands me and i think i maybe understand him. sometimes that can lead to very good things. i want to start by thanking president moon and very importantly, first lady moon. a very special woman. she loves her country have much as does president moon. we had a great dinner last night together and spent a large part of the morning discussing lots of different things including trade and military and many other items. i thought i would just mention that when we came here, our great ambassador arrived last night who is here someplace, was talking about the turmoil going

on because of the level of -- the vitriol, the level of vitriol happening between north and south. but it was north to a large extent where there was a lot of risk and a lot of threat and a lot of bad things were happening. that was before i became president. as you know and the media know because they covered it very well and fairly. at the beginning there was a lot of anger between myself and kim jong-un. who since something happened, there was a point at which it happened, and all of a sudden we get along. i figure when i was in japan where they hosted a fantastic g20, i just want to thank prime minister abe, because he did a fantastic job. a lot of good meetings came out

of that with other countries from the standpoint of the united states. but we decided to come here a while ago as part of going to the g20, i promised president moon. i was thinking, i'm here, let's see if we can say hello to kim jong-un. and i put out the word, and he got back and he wanted to do it from the beginning and so did i. but there is a lot of good feeling. when sometimes the media will say gee what's happened? they know what's happened in was nuclear testing, there was ballistic missile testing. they had hostages of ours, as you know. very tough situation. and now we are getting back our remains. we got back the hostages. there has been no ballistic missile tests and no nuclear

tests, and south korea is a different place. and japan is a different place. they had missiles going after japan on a very constant basis. you know that very well. i hate to hear the media give false information to the public. what's been done. a lot's been done. president moon feels better about even chairman kim. they couldn't have meetings. nobody was going to meet. president obama wanted to meet, and chairman kim would not meet him. the obama administration was begging for a meeting and chairman kim would not meet with him. and for some reason we have a certain chemistry or whatever. let's see what happens. we have a long way to go.

but number no rush. sanctions are on. i'm in no rush with iran, i am never in a rush. if you are in a rush you get yourself in trouble. so i just want to say that we are going to be heading out to the dmz anding ar something i planned long ago but had the idea yesterday to maybe say hello. shake hand and say hello because we haven't seen each other since vietnam. a great meeting in vietnam. it's all part of the whole negotiation. but we had a great meeting in vietnam. we had a great meeting in singapore. everyone gave us praise for singapore and not vietnam. the meeting in vietnam in terms of a deal was more important than singapore. so i think what i would like to do is we'll take one or two questions as i understand it,

then i'm going to head out to the dmz and pay my respect to everybody, including some soldiers. we have tremendous military here. and we are going to see some of our great american soldiers. we'll be talking to them. and i will be seeing kim jong-un. if you would, you can start with a question. thank you. >> thank you very much. [speaking korean]

[speaking korean]

>> i would like to welcome president trump on your second visit to the republic of korea. president moon you mentioned you will be accompanying president trump to the dmz, but the focus of the dialogue will be between president trump and chairman kim. you said you are looking forward to progress being made there. once the contact is made between president trump and chairman kim at the dmz, what kind of progress do you expect in the subsequent negotiations and how about the third summit happening before the end of the year. my last questions in an interview you mentioned that if

north korea under complete verification from the international community. if north korea dismantles the nuclear complex the it national community could explore partial sanctions relief. was there discussion about that this morning and what was the response from the u.s. side? [speaking korean]

>> [through the interpreter] the focus of the dialogue today will be the dialogue between the united states and north korea. of course, president trump and chairman kim will have a reunion and have dialogue. i hope and i do believe this is vastly significant for the dialogue that will follow after the meeting today. and also today there will be a dialogue between the united states and north korea. but as for the korean dialogue it will happen at a later time. as to the question about the third north korea summit, i believe how the dialogue and the meeting turns out this afternoon will have a great say on when and whether the north korea summit will happen for the first time. for the last question, what i

had explained was that if north korea goes through the dismantlement of the nuclear complex in yong bung. if this is implemented the international community will be able to discuss partial sanctions relief. my word were in this context. [speaking korean]

president trump: just to add one thing to your question from cbs. it's just a step. it might be an important step and it might not. but what we are doing today is a step. and probably a step in the right direction. there is a good feeling so it could be very good. as far as another meeting, i think let's see what happens today before we start thinking about that. but it could be very important. let's see. a question? go ahead. [speaking korean]

>> i am going to try to make it count. why do you want to step into north korea and what do you think that handshake could accomplish? nothing has substantively changed since hanoi. why does kim jong-un deserve this moment and how do you respond to the critics who say it's nothing more than a photo open. and i need to get in one china question. your agreement with president xi does that bring you back to the point in april where they made a lot of concessions on i.p. or are you back in the beginning of the process. president trump: that's two distinct questions. we made tremendous strides. only the fake news says they weren't. i don't have to repeat it. if you look at where we were

2 1/2 years ago, i think i can say the hatred everybody had for everybody and where it was going. i said if president obama's term was extended through any method other than having a successor that thought the way that administration thought, you would be right now sat war with north korea. it wouldn't be pretty it would be tough. we have the greatest military in the world by far. we have a greater military now than we had 2 1/2 years ago as you know very well. you reported on it. we bought tremendous equipment from jets to ships to equipment for soldiers. but we are in a much different place now, margaret, than we were 2 1/2 years ago. the previous administration wanted to talk. i asked people, why aren't they talking. some bad things happen with talks, too.

but we are so far advanced from where weir we were 2 1/2 years ago. and it's insulting. the press has lost such credibility. to compare where we are now with 2 1/2 years ago, in a way it's insulting, but we are doing well. let's see what happens in the end. but we are doing well. as far as china is concerned, we are where we are. we are collecting 25% on $250 bill. china is paying for it. our inflation hasn't gown. china devalued their currency in order to pay for the tariff, and they pumped a lot of money into their economic model. they have been pumping in money and we haven't. we have been raising interest rates, and lowering interest rates. so we are not playing on a fairfield.

the fed has not been a help to us at all. despite that we are winning and winning big because we created an economy that is second to none. greatest in the world. one of the things that happened at the g20, the president said the same thing to president moon. congratulations on the economy, what happened in the last 2 1/2 years is incredible. if the other thought process would have won the election we would have instead of being up 3% we would have been down 5% in my opinion and i think you would have had a stock market crash. it would have been very, very ugly. liz? [speaking korean]

president trump: you have to value the stock market from the day after i won. people want that thinking instead of the thinking we had. if i hadn't won. on november 9 you would have had a tremendous decrease in the stock market. i notice the previous administration is given credit for thousands of points of gain right after the election.

no. it went up because i won and we'll take the credit. if you take that credit we increased the stock market value by more than 50%. it went up only because i won and it went up a lot between election day and when we ultimately took office. and from there it went up a lot and continues to go up a lot. now we are setting record virtually every day. just to conclude on china, president xi and i had a great meeting. we get along and we have a really good relationship. and he wants to see something happen and so would i. we had a great meeting. thank you. [speaking korean]

>> i am sorry, we don't have much time. it's time for us to go. >> how do you have respond. do you trust president trump. when you are at the demarcation line. what do you believe stepping forward to that line may represent for the united states and for the world. [speaking korean] >> your first question was to president moon, right? [speaking korean]

>> first of all, we are striving to achieve peace through dialogue. but this does not necessarily mean we'll only travel in one direction. sometimes we'll go straight, and sometimes through a long and winding road. sometimes we have to pause and tips we have to retreat. but the only way we can achieve peace is through dialogue.

the meeting this afternoon will become a truly historic moment in the peace process on the korean peninsula. [speaking korean] >> thank you, that concludes the press conference. jon: we have the answer to our question that began this hour in all of our mind, which is, would kim jong-un take president trump up on the offer made just yesterday to meet him at the demilitary eyed zone that separates the two koreas. the president started out his remarks at that press conference saying he'll meet with kim jong-un. onroberts rejoins us. that's kind of the headline of the hour.

reporter: kind of the headline of the hour? probably the head line of the last year or longer than that. it's difficult to understate the historic nature of this meeting. this is something president trump wanted to do last year when he saw moon jae-in meet with kim jong-un. it's a foot of bricks. on one side you have got north korea, on the other side south korea. the president told his aides, i want that picture only i want to be there with kim. the president said, this is small step. it's not likely some grand bargain will come out of this. this is continuing relationship building. they left each other in hanoi.

couple was not particularly happy because he was not briefed by his closest advisors of the possibility if you put something on the table and what he put on the table was shutting down one nuclear facility, and that wasn't going to be enough. he felt embarrassed. the stories came out of north korea that some of his advisors were sent to work camps. we saw him in an opera performance along with kim jong-un. sometimes word coming out of the north is sketchy. but kim left hanoi and he wasn't a happy person. and he started to try to get attention by shooting rockets into the sea of japan.

the president is about to get on marine one and take off for the dmz with president moon jae-in and in an hour, 0 minutes from now, if not sooner than that. we'll see an historic picture, historic video of the two leaders meeting across ways one of the most of hostile borders in the world to push the peace process down the road. the president said i will probably be criticized because nothing big, nothing tangible will come out of this. but listen to what he said. >> we got back the hostage, there has been no ballistic missile tests and no nuclear

tests. south korea is a whole different place. japan. prime minister abe was telling me they had missiles going after japan on a very constant basis. you know that very well. i hate to hear the media give false information to the public when they say what's been done? a lot has been done. and there is also a good feeling. reporter: president trump is he believes if president obama were still a president if he was able to have a third term or hillary clinton had become president instead of him, south korea would be at war with north korea. there has been a lot of changes that would not have been made if he hadn't started this diplomacy with kim jong-un. and that's what the two leaders, south korea and the united states are going to try to continue this afternoon. the fact that you have got moon

and president trump together add left to the idea, let's move -- add heft to the idea, let's move this down the road. south korea has been trying to make a difference. it was interesting what president moon said at the beginning of the news conference. he hopes president trump will be the leader who finally brings peace to the korean peninsula. president trump says it won't happen today or tomorrow, it will be a long and incremental process. jon: john roberts in what is sunday afternoon in south korea. this his tore can meeting expected to take place about an hour from now. joining us live from d.c., the

former cia division chief for korea. how momentous a moment is this going to be to see a united states president possibly step into north korea or approach the border and shake hand with kim jong-un? >> it will be very historic but it will be just a photo-op. as the ht said it will be a short meeting. there will be no substantive progress toward denuclearization. up until yesterday north korea was refusing to meet with coreee rian diplomats. jon: the president noted the sanctions remain in place. kim jong-un is feeling the weight of u.s. sanctions. as long as those are in place, this country is in a world of hurt economically. is this perhaps an opportunity

for the president to say look, let's get a deal done. let's bring you into the family of nation and start improving your economy. >> we hope so. we should point out there is a lot more u.s. can be doing on sanctions. there are 300 north korean end tus he has chosen not to sanction. those are entities violating u.s. law. there is a lot more we could do. but the implementation of sanctions has been better in the last two years or so. hopefully north korea will agree to get back to the working level meetings. they refused to meet with the special envoy. we need to add meat to the bare bones of the singapore joint statement. jon: we have come a long way from the fire and fury remarks the president made early in his time in office. >> the president mentioned the

remains of our fall be warriors. the detainees released and the moratorium on nuclear missile tests. all of those are good but none are unique and were done in larger numbers under previous administrations. we need to get denuclearization progress because we have had none of that since singapore. jon: what does chairman kim get out of a meeting like this? >> he gets more virnd case of engaging with the u.s. he was surprised that the president walked away from the small deal in hanoi. but he does get a bit of vindication. he's overcoming the diplomatic isolation the u.s. was imposing. he does get benefits from this meeting. jon: he gets to appear in photographs with the most of powerful man in the world.

the north korean p.r. or propaganda machine can spin it any way they want to the people of that unfortunate country. >> have much so. jon: here with more insight on the announcement. president trump will meet with kim jong-un. gordon change is an asia analyst and author of "losing south korea." are you surprise the kim jong-un agreed to this meeting? people have been talking about that this might occur. but i didn't think this was going to happen. this is a real indication of the will of president trump to get things done. this is unconventional. previous presidents wouldn't even have thought of trying to do this within a couple of days. but trump is very different,

very you be conventional. jon: he is. but the criticism is this is nothing more than a photo-op. what can you actually accomplish with this happened shake and a couple minutes in the blue house. >> if your goal is to take away missiles. this undercuts that. because it gives legi -- gives legitimization to kim jong-un. but if the goal is to wean north korea away from china, that is consistent with what president trump has been doing the past year. then this is a lot of progress. as bruce clinger said, we have not been vigorously enforcing sanctions for 13 months. the question is, if you wanted to disarm the north koreans, you

would try and take away their money flow. we allowed a lot of sanctions bustings by the russians, the chinese, and we watched most of of this occur. so our sanctions enforcement is only mild it's not vigorous. >> it has been since may 9 that the north tested any missiles. >> those were also violations of u.s. security council resolutions. they did that and there was no cost for it. so they tested more ballistic missiles. so they are pushing the united states around at this point. jon: why then if they violated u.s. and u.n. sanctions, why then reward the chairman with this meeting at the border? >> president trump basically laid out his policy last year. he said he was giving kim a

one-time shot to disarm. what president trump has been trying to do is create a warm atmosphere so kim would feel secure enough to give up his weapons. but we have seen the north koreans have been increasing fissile material production. they have been making progress on their most of destructive weapons. we have watched this and thought done have much about it. jon: kim watched moammar qaddafi give up his nuclear weapons and saw what happened to him. it would seem maybe in his mind there is not much motivation to give up a nuclear program. >> the biggest arsenal in the world didn't save the soviet union. we have not made kim jong-un face the choice of keeping his weapons or keeping power.

we have the ability to do that short of the use of force. we haven't done it. until we do that i don't think we'll make progress on disarmament. we have made progress on relationship building. if you think that's more important than disarmament. but if your goal is to take away kim jong-un's weapons, there has not been any progress the last 12-13 months. you have to have a relationship before you negotiate, right? >> no, you don't. all you have to do is show the north koreans you have no choice. we are americans, we think you have to have a good relationship with the other side. but with these hard line regimes, it's an issue of overwhelming power. these regimes have the notion of comprehensive strength. whoever is stronger will get

what they want. they may like president trump, but it doesn't affect the way the north koreans look at us it's a question of power. jon: if you were running the north korea decks at the white house would you be busting those companies doing business in north korea and china. >> i would be enforcing the sanctions and go after the chinese banks. we should not allow people to violate federal law. we have been allowing the chinese and other countries to do that on behalf of the north koreans. we should be going after all these countries because they are just flouting international law. we are not enforcing it. so it is i think a problem growing bigger and bigger. >> president trump in that news

conference said he told chairman kim, this is not about regime change. i want to bring north korea into the modern era and you can be at the helm. >> that's what kim jong-un does not want to hear. kimberlyhear.kim jong-un have stayed in power by keeping people poor. when people are poor they don't have the means to resist. that's why the kim family has been keeping them so destitute. >> if your goal is to maintain power. the goal is for your country and your regime are very, very different. we have seen the kim regime do this and become very, very successful. 2 million people died in the great examine in the 1990s.

but the kim family was spending money on regime projects and not helping people live. when kim jong-un saw that video that president trump gave him in singapore about a prosperous north korea? that's exactly we did not want. the chinese made the same pitch to the regime during the previous years. so it's a very different mindset. we have got to look at this in a way that is different. jon: stay with us. we'll continue our coverage of this historic meeting at the border. our next step, joel rubin, currently the president of the washington strategy group. the president earlier made comments about how former president obama wanted to meet with kim jong-un but he says he refused the invitation. can you give us some background on that?

>> i'm not sure where that came from. i can only imagine it's something in president trump's fantasy about he need to juxtapose a win against an obama fail. this is a win for president trump. meeting with kim at the dmz is a win. president obama can only imagine if he met with kim a few years ago he would have been savaged by republicans. so i'm not sure why president trump needed to make that comparison. i will say the many true. the obama policy was flat lining at the time president trump came into office and not making the progress that we need. we haven't seen progress on denuclearization but we have seen a change in tone which is welcome. jon: every president going back

to harry truman has seen his north korea policy flat line. also at the same time we have to make sure we have our expectations right. a regime change is not an appropriate expectation. a pure forest maximum pressure on north korea has led to a result that we are looking for. what president trump does need is to get kim to get serious on negotiation and get into the details on denuclearization and the peace objectives that president moon spoke about a few moments ago. get a process going so president trump does haven't to be the one person going -- it looks like he's begging kim for a meeting. that's not the way we want to be seen.

if he only relies on himself we are not getting anything done on his watch. jon: you think the meeting is a win for the president and you seem to suggest it's a good idea? >> absolutely. i think any time there can be engagement at this level, it just does move the process forward. but there needs to be follow-up. that is what failed after the last summit. it kind of died after the second summit. there wraws was no follow-up. president trump make this initiative, talking to kim is a good thing. he should get credit for making this move. there will be a lot of cynics in washington. but any day we are talk is better than fighting. jon: thanks very much for your expertise. so the big headline on the hour, and onroberts maybe of the - --

and john roberts, that meeting will take place on the dmz we expect in the next hour or so. president trump: we made tremendous strides. only the fake news says they weren't. if you look at where we were 2 1/years ago. i think i can say the hatred that everybody had for everybody. and where it was going. i said that if president trump's term was for some reason extended through any method including having a successor that thought the way that administration thought, you would be right now at war with north korea. jon: history expected to unfold overnight in the united states.