robert: the summit is set, june 12 in singapore. president trump andhe north korean leader together. i'm robert costawe. discuss the hopes and challenges of u.s. foreign policy in north korea and with the iran nuclear deal. night on "washington week." president trump: i'll be meeting with kim jong-un to pursue a future of peace and eae world, for the whole world. barry: north k frees three north northwestern detainees, clearing the way for the summit with kim jong-un. president trump: our biggest achievement wh will be when we denuclearize that entire region. robert: p can tsident convince the north korean leader

stop his nuclear program and what will they expect in return? plus, one week after the u.s. pulse the inian deal, a warning to iran. president trump: i advise iran not to restart their nuclearm. prog robert: but the president of iran says if diplomatic mes cannot solve -- come it with its ownea iran may retaliate.xa wene the global implications with peter baker of "the new york times,"th shawna as of vice news, anne gearan of the "washington post" and michael crowley of politico. >> this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by --

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>> additionalunding is provided by cancer treatment centers of america newman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the commonood. koo and patricia yuen for the yuen f cndation,mitted to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the excellence in ethics and journali foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by ntributions to your pbs stationrom viewe like you. thank you. once again, from washington moderator robert costa. robert: good evening. there was a thematic thread running through articles this week from two of the sharp reporters w join u tonight. peter peter of "the new york times" said president trump was returng to his china-breaking instincts and upending diplomatic traditions. anne geara of the "washington post" wrote the the president

president, guided b his new secretary of state, mike pompeo and security advisor john bolt season now intent on making gut-driven decisions and taking an out of the box approach that has real consequences for the world. by week's endru mr.'s moves remain hotlyec detted with his supporters praising him and already channg "knob bell prize" -- nobel prize at his meetings. on monday, the u.s. ambassador will home in juice lesm.hi earlier week the u.s. removed itself from the iran nuclear deal and three prisoners who were being held in north korea were relsed. later, president trump plans to sit down with the north korean eader kim jong-un.

mr. trump's message so far has been upbea to the chagrin of some republicans and democrats. thankent trump: i want to kim jong-un, who was excellent to these three incredible people. >> it is so troublingo hear president trump that kim jong-un treated the americans excellent lip. kim jong-un is a dictator. >> i've been concerned lately about the rhetoric, calling him very honorable. we have to go in with our eyes de open. robert: anne, you've been coalring thi week. it's the two leaders, kim trump at president the center of this diplomatic issue. they're driving it, personal diplomacy. why is it more about him than the process? anne: on kim's side it's always been about because he's a

one-man dick to it air and ash on country. for president trump, he's making it h about and meeting kim where he is. e understands that kim has the power to make decisions unilaterally for his country and president trump is turning the usual ditchomatic process on its head and rather than working up to the big summit where the leaders sign something that's be precooked, he's going to do it the other way around. here's a guy who can make a decion on the spot. i can make a decision on the spot. maybe we can get a deal. robert: what will toky deal lo like? >> that's a great question. john bolton, his new national security advisor had said bef taking the job, everything that north korea has gets shimmed on a boat to the united states and put in thle n facility at oak ridge, tennessee. and that's the only thing the should be zus discussing.

obviously that's not what kim jong-un thinks he's discussing th president trump and i don't think president trump thinksng this is go be solved in one day necessarily. but anne is right they're turning things on their head. they'll turn it over to the experts,. hopeful that's what condoleezza rice trade today. don't try t make a big deal about this one meeting. you won't know enough about the details and you'll get taken for a ride. hy the reason it's kim and trump is because they're both one-maho in in administration, rex tillerson couldn't make a decisn. i don't think mike pompeo can. it all comes down to donald trump. >> now at the very beginning of that negotiating process, even though secretary pompeo h been to north korea i guess tce now since we knew he was going to be secretary of sta.

kim jong-un get his photo op. he gets to have the handshake with president trump. in theory, the traveling press will be around the -- in the room and around the world people will see him as someone who has the same statue your at the united states. giving that up at the beginning has issues. robert: that's an important point, he's looking for prestige, kim jong-un butlso signaled this week he wants to make sure north korea as a economy. they're struggling and he knows if he can improve trailed and get jobs hear- for h people and get some income, it could change his o stake in power. michael: he could. the question is how far does that vision go? does he want to get the chokehold off so doesn't have to worry about stramp vacation the country, unrest, people who are thinking to knock him out of the power or does he look at the chinese way and say i can

maintain an thorp tarnle season. i have -- authoritarian sson. we can have b.m.w.'s and mercedes in th streets and people can be making money and having a wealt lif sometime. china has set a very interesting example. we don't know his goal. there's a lot we don't know. whether he sees some vision in the near term of some reunification with the south. there are so many questions. one of the other big questions is what, if any red line does donald trump have right now. something that strikes me in the president's talk is that he has learned this sevid. this walky phrase that's been kicking around in political circles f years. president trump had an asian diplat who pointed this out to me. complete, verifiable,

irreversible denuclearize. there's no way to fudge that with a handshake and a photo op. that's serious business. >> someone asked president trump whs d denuclearize mean to you? he said that's easy, he getsof d his nukes. >> whatohn bolton said this week in talking about the iran deal, the economic association said they're complying with the deal he said yo cannot say that unless youhink they and the american intelligence agencie are verifiable. if that's the case, whoa how are we going to say it with north korea? robert: if north korea puts denuclearize on the table in singapore, what does the u.s. put on the table? removing the nearly 30,000 u.s. troops from the north korean peniula? >> that' one option and i'm sure the north koreans would

love that and the other thing ip openingconomic ties, - lowing more money to throw flee into north korea so that they can be a bigger part of the worl it's got to be some combination of that is what kim is going to ask forhi but i the idea that kim jong-un is going to put what i think post -- most people consider denuclearize on the tabl seems like a fantasy to an extent and when you look at g what'sng on with iran, why would he? robert: we keep talking to be new secretary of state mike pompeo and johnolton, the security advisor. how different is u.s. poly now that those two people are in those positions ramp than their principled sellsors? >> it's a complicated answe they're both more hawkish than the man they replaced. you really do have a contrast between perform yo and tillerson

but at the same time the president has veerped into in more conciliatory approach with north korea. so in those two jocks, you have very serious hawks. but the -- jobs you have very serious hawks but the president is in a dnt place on this negotiation and that's where you have to watchhether there's a potential rift. mike pompeo has seemed to beuc prettyon board with what president trump is doing. i think there's a rea possibility that john bolton is looking at all of this -- i guessrahe nuclear deal was the first big thing but ok, second big task and he's thinking boy,th what i president walking into? all bolton has been saying for months is you can't trust him. robert: do you sen tensions in your reporting? >> i sense that people are waiting for it because the bounds of that potential confct are so clear. what is trump setting himself up

to doith north zphrea to have an ongoing negotiation about lowering or getting rid of nuclear cability in exchange for economic regards -- rewards and some diplomatic opening. gee, that sounds very familiar and john bolton hated the iran deal because they thtght t that architecture could never work and i find it hard to believe that he's super on board with the idea that you could do the same thing with north korea. robert: how much for in president matters about the theater of the moment vs. the actual details that anne is talking about.ru >> president, first of all, spent no time with government or the military before becoming president. the first president in american history. the advantage is he's not locked into the old ways of oing things. he is flexible and he doesn't care that he's maybe seen as inconsistent. if he might have said something on a twitter field three months

ago and says something completely different three months later, it doesn't bother him. he doesn't care much about the details. he wets to m sure he has something that seems like a win and something that won't fall apart before he leaves office if the details aren't there.s but he'ot a nuclear expert. he's never gone through this before. >> he doesn't necessarily need to come out of that meeting with kim jong-un with an actual concrete deal. as long as he can come out of iy and for his fans and a lot of other people, we made progress and i got kim jeong up unto dupree - tokim jong-un to agree to something. he will call that a win. >> there's an interesting phrase escalatery theory, you to deescalate and donald trump in some ways escalated byki fr everybody out. it was a breakthrough issue. there was that false alarm in

hawaii where people were running to bomb shelters. now that's behind us, people are breathing a sigh of a relief it feels like we're safe again and the details i think will be less important in the kind of grand reality show that is the trump presidency than that .otional shi robert: it is a shift. i remember last summer watching our phones as the president tweeted fire and fury about litt rocket man and now reporters are planning tritches to singapore to cover the summit. what a country, diplomacy, you can't predi it. including what's happening in the middle east. iran is trying to salvage the nuclear deal it struck in 2015 and at the same time there been a real spike in violence between iran and israel. israel claims it has destroyed almost all of iran's military capabilities in syria in retaliation for iranian mitchell attacks. meanwhile, interestingly, russia is playing the rol of

intermediary in that conflict. moscow has a significant stake here in syria. peter, you were the bureau chief in moscow for the "new york times." when you watch what's happeni in the middle east between iran and israel and you see putin interjectsing himself, what disease that tell full? peter: putin wants to be the central player. an indisnsable man in effect on the world stage and we've given him a lot of openingn the middle east by pulling back some of our involvement there. true under president tmp and also under president obama the last few years. he wants to be the person seen as theroker. what's important to member remember, she sort of iran's number one enabler right now. because he and in have worked together to prop up bashar assad syria, they're changed the dynamics of where that civil

was going prior to his involvement andpsended -- upedged the israel security issue. if iran is in syriain a big way, they feel it very, veryal visc. >> great deal is confronting now somethinghat was a very, very remote thought five or more years ago, which is a perm innocents and veryangerous to them iranian presence on a border that was previously considered very safe and essentially is not set up for that kind of defense. that's yet another troubled border for steal and they'll essentially beandwiched by iranian proxies on two sides and their arguments to putin is you have to help us putn i a box here.

i think very interesting and it takes us back to trump thara is making that argument to russia, yes, to the united stes too in different way but the idea is hey, they can do it themselves. they don't need the united states to be their intermediary. and clearly netanyahu thinks putin has the power to do it. robert: iran is a big story with what's happening in syria then president trump weighs in and makes his decision on the iran nuclear deal and it disrupts what'sns happeninge of iran. what do you make of that? the presidentn there has b protective of the deal and trying to defend the process but he's under a lot of pressure inside of iran. >> he absolutely isa' barack ob theory is that we could do a deal with iran that would, among other things -- and people

of the most important parents of the iran nuclear deal w netanyahu because in 2012 there was a real feeling that the iranians were going to strike the nuclear program. but also, can we start to change the rhythm that we've had with iran that's been so poisoned since the 1979 revolution and show the iranian people that these relative model rats who are reaching out to the west can do something and that the west can be trusted. the hardliners say you can never trust the united states. na'il stab new the back.as trump validated the theory you hard liners who say can't trust the americans. they'll stab you in the backnd tric you. and i think it does pose a threat to the power of,hat again, relatively moderate andi reformist in iranian

politics. robert: what does to this do to the price of oil abroad and to the companies making deals with iran? shawna: it does couple of things. one of the things we did to bring everyone tbathe table in 2013, 2005. , we the united states put a lot ofct sns on others, other banks andes counto punish them if they did deals with iran. one of thehings we did was take some pressure off other countries so that money cold ow and do the things that obama want told happen in iran. what the administration has said is we're going to putose sanctions back on so companies like airbus have to decide, do we continue to do business withl iran butk ourselves out of the american financial market? most likely a company like airbus is going to s no, we

probably need america. let's keep on going. it allowed basically iran to sell more oil to other parts of the world and the price of oil has already started going up because of even unrest whether mpor not president t would pull out of the deal. now oil prices are going up. -- the up. until be people who feel that at the pump but for the most part, the u.s. doesn't do a lot of busirass withn in general but gasoline prices, people might start to feel that ro rt: how much of this was about undoing the obama legacy? >> lot of it. two things going on. president tru's core fundamental bleach to the stefpbletthe has one iser that a has been shafted over the years. there's no deal basically since the 1980's that america hased into into that he thought was good flu. whether it's trailed or the iran

onal. the s part is yes, everything obama did has a b, scarlet o. on it for him. whether it be his domestic or foreign policy. if obama did it, it must have en wrong. that was always going to be a problem for in iran deal. robert: the sim bloism of going against president obama's legacy and records seemso be a bing thing for the. what about the move the u.s. moving itso embassy jerusalem. another sim lolicic -- symb move. >> yes, this move will happen on monday, the day symbolically for them. and there we have trump not only going against what obama did but what two previous presidents before obama dimmed as well and

trump said it himself in his remarks. he said over and over again presidents and have said they would do this. they promised and they didn't do it and i'm going to do it. yes, he wants to do it. he thinks it's the right thing and he's surrounded by advisors who think he's it's rights think to -- thing to do but that idea that he could do something by himself that other presidents and separations -- administrations before him had not was clearly appealing. >> his favorite. words are first, most, best. anything that qualifies for superlatives. i'm the first to do. i'm going to do what nobody else did. >> another rationale against syria, his fee that barack obama wouldn't do it. he probably was the first to order force against syria.el he like obama walked up to

the famous red line detective and trump loved the fact he did the thing that obama wouldn't do. >> even tept he said obama shouldn't do it. > needless to say he follows through on his campaign promises. pulling out of the iran deal was a campaign promise. moving the embassy out of -- to jeers lem because campaign promise. he's been running for office since he took office and that plays well. robert: thank you for joining us and stay tuned for "in principle" where we'll hear from former mayor mitch landrieu, a possible presidential candidate 2020. our conversation continues, as ever, online on the "washington week" extra where we'll review the confirmation hearings for gina haspel, president trump's nomination for the c.i.a. find that later at

pbs.org/"wasngton week." robert costa. have a great weekend and happy mo mer's day to your and my mom. >> funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand the challenges of today and research the technologies of tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> additional funding is provided by --

>> at cancer treatment centers of america, we publishlt treatmt re for 11 cancer times, including the most common ncers so patients can make informed decisions about their cancer care. learn more at cancer center.com. ru>> americane lines. proud sponsor of "washington week." newman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. koo and patricia yuen for the yuen foundation, committ to bridging cultural differents in our communities. the corporation forc pub broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs stion from viewers like you. thank you. thank you. >> you're watching pbs.

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