boip a handshake h andtory and a long way to go. i'm robert costa inside the promise and peril of a breakthrough in the seemingly never ending korean war. tonight on "washington week." korean leaders from the north and south make history. ageing to end decades of tensions and turn a 1953 truce into a peace treaty. >> there will not be any more war on the korean peninsula. we are the p sameeople that should live in unity. robert: how this stunning summit is a preview of the wnplanned sitetween president trump and the north korean leader. >> much h of what been targeted toward me and my team has been half truths or best stories so twisted they do not resemble reality. robert: embattled.p.a. administrator scott pruitt is

fighting back against allegations of ethics allegations and questions over his spending habits. >> those are the type the -- those who attack the e.p.a. and me want to derail the esident's agenda and undermine this administration's priorities. robert: the president's pick to lead the department of veterans affairs withdraws from te nomination pcess following reports of professional misconduct. mr. trump hostedof lead france and germany this week who urged the president to preserve the iran nuclear deal. >> we should abandon it without having something substantial and mor substantial. robert: we cover it all with tara palmeri of abc news, yamiche alcindor of the pbs newshour, mark landler of the "new york times," and dan balze of "thshington post." >> this is "washington week." corpore funding i provided by --.

oncegain, from washington, moderator robert costa. robert: good evening. the imageshis week of state craft and stage craft were ground breaking. even as negotiations continue. but north korean leader kim jung un and southorn leader moon jyin came together shaking hands and smiling as they agreede to rem all nuclear weapons from the korean peninsula and announced they will work with the udted states ahina to officially end the war.

a war that began in 1950. at the summit the first between korean leaders in more than a decade, moon and kim pledged to establish permanent and solid treaty. that declaration included promises to pursue a phased reduction of military arms, transforming the border into a peace zone, and reorganizing families, bringing them together, that were divided by the long war. in the oval office on friday, president trump said, for that he believes the north korean leader is working in good faith. "i don't think he's playing," trump said, adding thatwi "he not be played." president trump: i agree. the united states has been played beautifully like a fiddle becauou had a different kind of a leader. we're no going to be played. ok? we'll hopefully make a deal. if we don't that's fine. robert: mark, welcome to "washington week." what are the next steps for p president trere as he watches from afar president moon andim jung un get

together? mark: this summit amounted to a lum r for the summit he'll have at the end of may or early june. so i think that they were watching very closely in the white house to see what kim -- how ki behaved,ow he handled himself. i think probably the judgment is he is a prett adroit player. there was a moment you recall when the two leaders first met across the line of demarcation and moon maneuvered kim for a picture and before they retreated into the peace house to have theirng mee kim took moon by the arm, brought him back across the line of demarcation into north korea. that struck me as the moment where it was clear they're dealing with a sophisticated guy. he understands stage craft. he underst idsgery. and i think for donald trump, a president who understands stage craft imagery, it had to be an interesting moment to take m thsure of this man he'll be dealing with. robert: inside of the white house, are they thinking of the stage craft a theater of big deal with kim

jong unr reallyhinking be the conditions they want to set before the meeting? yamiche: i think it is both. at the white house they are very into imagery and president trump knows very much that he wants to look strong and in control. i was kin of surprised the fact he didn't go on a complete i would say maybe two or three twitters or send two or three tweets today basically taking credit for the fact they wer talking about the war being over. you kind of felt the presignt was tryo say i'm having a very big deal in this area. instead he kind of was smarter than that. he said, you know, i look forward to meeting with him. we've gotten two locations and o we're down this and getting close. he was careful not to say i'm going to sit therend stickt to him. he basically said we have these goals ofuc darization. i don't think he was taking the tough man stance tt he was taking when he called him little rocket man. robert: tara, welcome to "washington week." are there any i tensionsn the cabinet or the administration about how to move forward, to take a hard line or look for the deal? tara: you'll see the teesion be the new national security adviser mike bolton

and the also mat is -- mattis, secretary of defense. ey're hard liners, hawks. they're going to be very suspicious. they've been around the blocker in of foreign policy and they've seen this game before where north koreae plays nic enough just to get the sanctions lifted and then, you kn, pulls back the deal. so i think trump is going to have to -- they're probably tempering his expectations and that is why you're seeing the tweets that aren't necessarily victory laps. but you can see, i felt shades of trump trying to paint this as his legacy. i'm sure he loved th congressman messer said he deserved a nobel peace prize. thosempre the things t loves to hear. but he's going to have to temper hiss. expectati i think that's what they're going to be doing. robert: so there are veteran skeptics inside theti administ. as a veteran reporter, dan, you've seen presidents raise expectations sometimes be challenged to meet those. dan: yes. i think in this case that is particularly the cha for the president. you know, obviously something significant haspe hd. the fact that we are where we

are today as oppose today where we were sixondays ago -- posed to where we were six months ago is quite remarkable. the imagery in north korea over the last 24 hours is also remarkable. t at best, theirst meeting between our president and k, all it can do is begin a process that might lead to something concrete. and i think that's part of the effort that they're going to have toho undertake. do they set those expectations? e at conditions are they putting on thble? to what extent are they prepared to yield on some things? how patient -- i think this is really important -- how patient e don'tident trump who think is terribly patient in most other areas? tara: it just seemse wants to sign a deal and move on just like he does in real estate. this is something you have t nurture over a long period of time. robert: he is not the only player. the president of china was praised by president trump today for trying to, with his hard lin sanctions bringing kim perhaps to the table.

china is going to have a role to play as well. yamiche: china is going to have a role to play. when i think about how other countries are painting this i was really surprised by the fact that angela merkel said this is great ameadcan ship. there are times we see people kind of flattering trump in this kind of way that is pretty obvious. she was trying to say, look. we can see you as a leader on i thue and someone who can bring in other countries. i think that's important thathe not just hearing this is a nice tier you can rub some dandruff off. she is saying we expect this from you. h was really importa said i feel this is my responsibility. he started kind of trashing the people that came beforesa him, ng i shouldn't have had to take care of this but i'll take care of this. i think there is ts idea that he's not wanting people to feel like i'm going to sol this bu it was important to hear him say he wanted to take this leadership. robert: mark, is kim jong un playing with a weak hand rig now?

there were reports from china his nuclear missile test site is notnd functioning he's dealing with crippling sanctions, h poverty throughout his country. what is forcing him --? mark: itds on your benchmark. there is no question his economy has suffered a great deal. most analysts will tell you ey don't believe it has suffered enough he would necessarily buckle and there are reports about this nuclear facility being more or less collapsed. that said, over the past several years, the have gone to within a close threshold ofi able to deliver an icbm to american territory. so you could argue he is actually playing with exactly the right hand at the moment. when he made the pledge last week to halt testing, he said, well the reason we're halting testing is we don't need to test anymore. that was also a boast on his he was reaffirming what he said before which is that we are already effectively a nuclear weapons state. i ink there are two ways to look at it. yes he is under economic

aessure but he'so made a lot of progress on his nuclear rogram and is playing a strong hand. he knows we know that and will try to extract as much as he can to halt the program. robert: you mentioned the past l hovers overf this of course. what about human rights? what are they saying inside the white house che they look at the family suing nor korea raising questions about whether you can really trust kim jong un? tara: that was a huge reminder of who we're dealing with. a lot of the news reports you he north korean leader. let's not forget he is a dictator. a senior hill aide i spoke to said this would have never happened in the clinton administration because she would have taken so much flack from the foreign policy, that foreign policy justn general r dealing with a dictator. you're not supposed to deal with them. what about human rights?um showed us early on that is not his main priority. you know, being chummy with saudi arabia and just more looking for the deal than the details. we still have three americans detained in north korea. we're not playing wh an

honest broker right now. robert: dan, could the u.s. accept a nucle armed north korea as long as they agree to peaceful terms with south korea and the rest of the world? dan: not on the basis the president has established these negotiationst i mean, if t rolled back, in all kinds of ways he'll be judged as having caved. if that's allowed. in the same way we're dealing with iran that issue is front and center. theur wholese of ending strategic patience, sabre rattling, was til say we not abide by nuclear weapons for north korea. so i don't see how he can give in on that. now, the question is, can they structureth a dea takes a lot of time and, you know, mk ows the details of this. mark: i think the issue, the challenge for the president is aing to be if the north koreans stringng the process which they always have in the past, he is going to come under ass lot of pe from the right, which is going

to begin to question the strategy. you know, i think it's also worth noting, tara brought up john bolton. he gave a very interesting interview a few days before he was recruited as national security adviser. he was asked about a trump-kim summit. he said it is a useful exercise cause it will fai quickly and by failing allow us to move to the next phase of our engagement with the which he clearly meant military action. that is the tensi president trump will face if he allows this pros toes play out over a long perd of time. dan: doesn't it have to play out over a long period almost by definition? say they are seeking the end of nuclear weapons. the complex its of an aeement like that and the conditions and return, a couple years' process. mark: oh, yeah. if you lookhetrevious rounds of diplomacy during the clinton years and the bush years, they both bogged down very quickly into these highly technical discussions aboutn. inspectors and where do

you put stockpiles of uraniuima it does get extremely complicated very fast. so to your point earlier, does the president have the patience is i think the key question for how this orks. >> details matter. theater matters too in politics. so many players.lt , pompeo, the president, his tweets, the mattis. we'll keep a close eye ont. let's turn to another complicated front -- iran. this week presiwint trump met the leaders of france and germany and discussed the iran nuclear deal that is set to expire on may 12. the week kicked off with a festive state visit in honor of the french president. the warm relationship between the two leaders was certainly on full display. but differences remain on trade and oth issues. in hisddress to a joint session of congress he called der an expanded deal to inc containment of tehran's destablizing activities in the region. on friday german chancellor angela merkel rec lved aer profile welcome at the white

house for a working meeting with the president merkel pressed the president to stay with the iran deal. but durin his first official e'ip as secretary of state mike pompeo who been talking about said no decision has been made on whether the u.s will pull out. >> absent a substantial fix, g absent overcome short comings, the flaws of the deal, he is unlikely to stay in that deal past this may. robert: tar you are at abc news now but spent a lot of time in europe asco a espondent in brussels. with merkel and mccrone bae-to-back meetings with president what is europe's agenda in trying to keep president trp with this iran deal? tara: i spoke with a senior french official that said the president of france did leave disappointed. this is a hallmark of the e.u. and validates the e.u. which is dealing with a bit of an s identity cri since brexit. working very closely withitohn

kerrythe support of merkel and at the time francois holland ince. they want this to stay together and are considering adding an agreement on top of the agreement because having that agreement is so symbolic for them. he leftnowledging they are going to have to expand the sunset clause for a l etime, rather i think 10 years. it is really difficult for them to leave this.t the fs trump is doing what he said he'd do. he said he was going to pull out of the paris climate agreement and he did. he said he was going to pull out of th iran deal and it seems he would. he created a self-imposed deadline of may 12 but at the same time with the paimris e agreement they didn't really give him an option. at this time they're heading home and to weeks i european diplomacy time is like a minute and they'll have to come up with something if the want him to stay. robert: dan, does this have a cost for the nuclear tal with north korea if the u.s. is seen as getting out of the iran deal does it send a message to kim

jong un? dan: one would think it would. i would think part of thes difficultye don't know how kim thinks. normally if you're starting a negotiation and reneging on other negotiation or treaty that person is going to be deeply skeptical of you and your negotiating stance. mark: i've heard analysts maker anotse which is that kim is such a hermatic guy and so involved in his own world that won't put that stock in anen agre with a country thousands of miles away. the things we know about kim's psyche are huge. with president trump the difficult thing o the iran deal is that the europeans have come a long way toward him. they've actually moved i think to a remarkable degree from a deal they thought was absolutely n wellotiated and keep in mind extremely popular with european public, there is

actually a domestic cost for merkel and macron to even talk about walking away from this deal. i think the fact they've made this many steps toward the president and it doesn't seem to be enough almost the possibility of it, of a happy outcome. mark:ou when look -- robert: when you look at macron he is bncing a lot of balls this week trying to become chummy with president trump but also to his congress back home. yamiche:s a remarkable bromance until it ended. he scene where te president was touching him. as a reporter you sit back and think did that really just then you listen to the president of france talk to congress and it was sounding like he was tking drektly to president trump. he was saying, look. we understand america first got you elected but we don't want this to be an isolationtt or ab nationalism. you can't just pull out of the world. the world is going to go on. ak was sg in this poetic way reminding america that

france and america have been joined at the h and really connected for centuries. there is this idea that he was really tryings to send t message that, look. france really wants to be your friend and to be our friend to continue to be close to us we need to have ese deals together. we need to make these agreements. i was sitting in that press conference. they were both physically looking -- the body lan tage betweem when you see them in the room is them feeling chummy, them feeling warm. i think bm h of tre trying to feel as though they were having a connection but then when you listen to him address congress you kind of think, hum. is he telling trump, hey, don't that? tara: the thing trump needs to remember when talking to and merkel he is not just speaking to the leaders of france and germany but the leaders of the eu and macron is there defending the interests of the e.u. he is talking about trade with slovenia as well even though it is a smaller country and he keep a talkingut bilaterals and needs to understand the political dimensions in europe when he is doing he sort of is maybe missing that point a bit.

mark: those tariffs on steel and aluminum another reason we see the overtures between the european leaders in their meetings with trupp. robert: there was more news this week. president trump saw member under a hot spotlight on capitol hill this week in his pi to lead the veterans affairs administration bowed out following reports ofin propriate work behavior. white house doctor and rear admiral ronny jackson withdrewin as n for secretary of veterans affairs after current and former colleaguesus acc him of professional misconduct while serving as the president's persol physician. in a statement dr. jackson responded to those allegations saying if they hadny merit i would not have been selected, promoted, and entsted to rve in such a sensitive and important role. on a the same day, embattled e.p.a. administrator scott pruitt faced two congressional hearings about his management of the agency and snding habits. lawmakers questioned the e.p.a. administrator forive hours about a $43,000 phone booth, hi first class travel, and a

condo rental from the wife of a lobbyist pruitt down played his role in spending decisions and often blamedis staff. tough situation for dr. jackson. all these allegations. also not aot of vetting by this white house. dan: no. this whole nomination turned into a train wreck starting with the decision i think to nomite him without any serious vetting and nominate somebody who would not havekihe of experience you would expect to run a bureaucracy as troubled ands bige veterans administration. then it went to capitol hill and, you know, it was like ahe of allegations started flowing in. and, interestingly and in some ways disturbingly,his got pushed out by senator testor without much backup information. i mean, there was one allegation in particular which the white house says tonighttr no which is that he crashed a vehicle after he got drunk at a secret service

he denied it. the congress folks did not have any backup evidence of it. it starts with bad pernnel operations at the white house and just spiraled out of control. mark: you know what was interesting to me is you had almost universal decorations and statements of support for ronny jackson from the obamast admition officials, trump administration officials, y ivanka tmp tweeting. and yet from the people who work with dr. jackson and privately went to the senate committee there was evidence at he was at the very least a pretty bad boss. i guess it shows the isolation medical office is in within the white house that the political side either turned a blind eye to this orwa unaware of the way he ran his operation. tara: i'm justre wondering w was the pushback from the white house? why did they not find these people that worked in the oba administration, george bush's administration and fact check and get them out there talking about ronny jackson, defending him? no one talked toim.

it is a day after he withdrew his name and now we know that that allegation not true or at least the white house is saying it's not true. have f this stuff shoul happened in real time. i think it's just also a lesson about -- that the trump administration is really learning howo nominate. yamiche: i talked to a lot of white house aides who echoed nat. peoplehe white house were telling me they were very frustrated with the fact they were not really having a rapid response to all the things coming at dr.hi jackson. i thursday the white house was kind of handing out to any reporter who would listen allon these promo requests from barack obama. the president himself that same day was not talking about barack obama's promotion requests. he was saying, look. if i was ronny jackson i'dak probably the way out. >> scott pruit hangs on because in part my sources tell me he has support fromte supp in congress, conservative donors like him. his future could be in the balance here. dan: i think it is a little less clear what direction it is

going in or a little lesslear he is on a slope out after the hearings. he gotob ply more support from republicans on the committees than might have been expected. he got very tough questioning from democrats and a couple republicans. but not widespread. mark:s the white house going to walk away from pruitt? tara: they don't have that many options. ey need to get a head of the v.a. through. trump likes pruitt. i' been told th actually other cabinet members are a little bit jealous of his w relationshh scott pruitt. he likes how he is rolling back all of president trump's agenda and regulations and he has a truly conservative agenda on the environment. >> rolling back the obama agenda. tara: exactly. trump finds h as a loyal messenger. obviously this is a distraction and side show and the question is wn will it become too much? robert: we got to go and leave it there. i always love hearing this story from my sources how pruitt goes to the white eouse no, si lunch. we can talk about it later. thanks everybody. coming upt on "in

principle" cohost amy holmes chats with microsoft founder bill gates who shares his timistic big picture vief the future tonight on "in principle" on most pbs stations check your local listings. and our conversation continues onne on theashington week extra where we'll talk about president trump's legal challenges and the new house report on the russia probe. find that later tonht at pbs.org/washington week. i'm robert see you next time [captioning performed by the national captioning institute which is responsible for its caption contt and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] s

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