robert: it's back on. president trump will head to singapore to meet with the north korean leader. i'mobt costa. we discuss the diplomatic drama and new tarif spark trailed tensions. president trump: i've never said it happens in one meeting. you're talking about years of hostility, years of problems. years of really hatred. and i told him tay, take your time. robert: a wee after canceling a summits with north korea, ouesident trump aes the meeting with kim jong-un is back on. president trump: we'll be meeting on june 12 in singapore. robert: both the presidentnd secret of state say they are confident talks with north korea ov nuclear weapo are moving

in the right direction. we report on the latest twists in the higstakes negotiations. plus, economic uncertainty as the u.s. slams new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from europe, canada, and mexico. we discuss it all with peter peter of "the new york times," mitchell mitch of nbc news, and shawna thomas of -- mitchell mitch of nbc news and that you knowha tyou know -- shawna thomas of vice news. >> this is "washgton week." corporate funding is provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand th challenges of today. and research the technologies of tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team.

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the corration for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbsad nistration from viewers like you, thank you. once again, moderat robert costa. robert: good evening. just one week after abrnctly ing a meeting with north korean leader kim jong-un, president trump announced the june 12 summit i a go. on friday, he met with north korea's former spy chief at the white house. the huddle was the culmination of this week'sen develo. days earlier secretary of state mike pompeo hosting a dinner with him and other officials in new york to continue the rapid fire diplomacy that ban -- began almost as soon as theresident pulled out of the planned summit eek. today the perspective lowered expectations. presidentru: i never said it's going to go in one meeting. i think it's going to a process but the rhythms are

building. robert: peter, he's talking about the beginning of a process.s if t just the start of a long process, what does success look like on june 12? peter: that's a greatst qn. now we're looking at june 12 as a gets to know you pluseeting. that's what he called it. they were trying to downplay expectations because i think it's become clear to them that there's no such thing as a straight line when it comes to north korea and hey that didn't want to have expectations so high that when they came out of singapore d without aument that it looked like a failure. robert: what document could come out of this? the president mentioned there could be an end to the long korean war. andrea: indeed, and one interim stem might be establishing intersections that would not be an end to the war yet, although he did tee that up, but it could

be the beginningf stems toward that. intersections would be what we had with cuba for decades whe d you ca spying, you can do everything you can do at an embassy except have formal recognition. it would give us a much easier way to verify whether they're complying and also a wild window into washington. robert: what do you make of secretary pompeo. 's with the president, not john bolton. shawna: in some ways the state department should be taking a lead on this. in a more normal process of this kind of negotiation, a lot of what we've seen as back and forth would haveappened behind closed doors but it would be the statement department figuring t what does denuclearization means.

even though pompeo is pretty much a hawk as well, it's a somewhat good tng that t guy who's in charge of the state department is the one whos in some ways representing america presidentoom along the trump. andrea: john bolton, the was nal security advisor noticeably an sent. today he was not in the oval office oowhere to be seen and it is, i'm told, precisely because he spoke of the libya model, which almost derailed this whole thing. so did mike pence and he was not in the room. pompeo has street yesterd with the president because he was the cis briefer befor h became the secretary of state. is e is a hard liner but he also very invested in this and i think he's correctly taken stock of the president's interests in legacy. he's going to do somethang no other president has been able to do and if they can verify it

and if he now has a lowered expectation that it's going to take a whe. st not going to be one summit or three. he might stay longer in singapore. he might be able to do something that barack obama never acleaved oreallyttempted. that george w. bush fried ask failedan athat bill clinton, most importantly tried to achieve but didn't. robert: a what are the signals, know, that kim kim is send something he's sending his top guy to talk to the president. what has he donean to sho kind of commitment to these talks? shawna h sending top guy is one way. the fact it still seems they were talking. you have a team of people in singapore still trying to figure ou what happens on june 12. even though last week we all got

into a frenzy and president trump said he's not going to th actually go t summit. he sent the letter, that whole thing. eemed like behind the scenes, people just kept going. peter: the president said two things in particular that werel notend different. you played one of them, where there is going to be a process. take your time, hex. a week ago they were saying it had to be rapid denuclearization. it's a big change. the other thing was, i don't like to use te phrase "maximum pressure," he said. that wase. his phr what he's signaling is we may not be taking sanctions off but we m not be enforcing the ones we have on all that vigorously. a letting up of the pressure. robert: wha jong-un at this moment? sit china pushing him to the table?

the sanctions crib -- criling his economy? what's patrolleding him to give the letter to drive ts moment? peter: by most accounts, he wants to bring his backwards country into at least a little bit me of an economic prosperous place. you see the satellite notes where the north is completely dark whereas t south is lilt. he steams to be concerned about finally trying to b it out of that backwards aerial and the nuclear weapons prom is his playing card. andrea: kim young chol had to get special permission to even set foot in he united stat and then to come to washington. the visit is in sharp contrast to the only previous visits that the level in the overwhelm office, which was with bill clinton in october of 2000, setting up madeline albright's terrorism 10 days later.

it was the red carpet today. the south port come. reporters and photographers positioned to catch a glimpse of them walking down the salon nailed. the oval office. shaking hadgeds.es and then thect of walking him out to his motor cailed, taking still photos with the rest of his delegation, posing for pictures and praising him so warm limb. robert: the u.s. is giving kim respect, as peter was saying. what do u.s. allies, what does the rest of the world say? une his meeting happens on 12 and he doesn't commit to denuclearization but he now? is engaging with the >> south korea and japan say if he didn't agree to dee nuclearization, i think they say you got played to a ctain stefpblet. i think the rest of the world is justgoing to sit and watch

because they don't want to be played by north korea. in some ways this was half a win today for the north koreans and if that -- handshake and photograph happen onune 12 in singapore, that's almost a full win for north korea. andrea: he ran on this program and quickly met with kim jong-un this past weekend to put it back ogether. that was a little worrying to the american side.be they thought m moon is too much joining kim jong-un but the japanese are very nervous. robert: the president seemed nervous about russia's involvement with kim jong-un. >> he was very movied that the russian ambassador met with him. robert: what was it about? >> you can assume it wasn't friendly. they did it without communication with the united states andir they have twn interests in preventing a win for thed uniates.

vladimir putin sees global iplomacy as a zero such win. if by we win, they lose. the other thing, this is fro the president. one of his strengths and weaknesses, sometimes the same thing, his lack of firm commitment to particulars on any policy, ght? unlike i sacks isom of hised princiays -- unlike, say, some of his predecessorshat got locked in. he's very capable of creating a deal that drtoesn't com with what he's said in the past and doesn't worry he'll be cled inconsistent. that gives him some flectsability in a negotiation. andrea: i think that's exactly right and also, peter's points about what kim jong-un gets outs of this he adult dulls wants to turn the lights on. and i was in new york when secretary pompeo pointedly showed ther ambassa the vista

of the skyscrapers, manhatt. they wanted to show off the white house. the rest of the churn is -- country inea north k is baron. i can't describe what it was likem to drive f pyongyang a number of years ago and drive down to the d.m.z. a see all these lands what looks lik feudal peasants hoeing with non- mechanic niced commitment. -- equipment. nece basically nothing.he robert:est of the world is watching and also watching on trailed. new tariffs the president has imposed onel aluminum and s imimportanted from europe came about with new policy this week. canadand mexico are looking at new policies from the u.s. the move comes from the president as the administration is also pres the american allies this week immediately pushed back,

threatening retaliation on measures targeting american products. it's raising concern, concern ol capitol the president originally imposed the 25% tariff on steel and 10% on steele aluminum in massacsetts. the exemption for mexico has now expired. shawna, vice news has been talking to voters in the midwest and other placearound the country. we always talk about trade i west virginia but how is it affecting those who are out in the country running businesses and farms? shawna: back in march with we were with inoi illfor although although -- another story, we talked with a farmer, a trump supporter. has a farm with a lot of dairy cows and a couple of other things. he said he still supported d president trumpite the fact that there was this, are we going to get more tariffs from

commine and the e.u., that whole thing, but he was able to sort of basically connce himself that president trump has a match plan. how obably doesn't realize this affects farmers so people need to tell him how i affects farmers but once he finds that out and once we all see what t plan is, things will be fine and stay on president trump's side. it's interesting that if you support m, you're able to come port his actions into something that is believle that is supporting you. robert: the president had good jobs numbers on friday for the u.s. economy, even some republicans and advisors are saying hold off. peter: some republicans are saying this is going to hurt us. all the this you're bragging about the economy now are at risk if you get us into a sustained and ealating trade war. the republican party, their orthodoxy for decades has been

freerade, free trade. testify -- we have focused some in recent years on the losers of free trade and their stories have ctivated politicians like president trump and a lot of democrats. you flip that t arounre are a lot of winners in free trade. if they suddenly become losers,ing the be interesting to e how that changes the dynamic. andrea: i was with some farmers onit c hill getting killed by and it are very concerned about the thata negotiations. which had real -- reached a critical point. pressure by this separation had god gotten mexico and canada to comet to the table. then it got blown up. stin trudeau slammed them about this personal statement. c robert: he saada has been one of america's most steadfast allies, sngved a america in

two world wars, the korean war. we have to lieve at some time their common sense will prevail. powerful word from the prime minister. we andrea: the in afghanistan and nato. there is so much anger and you talk to koran bury grewers in ma tachusetts. yet's a democratic state, a blue state but floret the midwes you'll hear real pushback. the all the industry is going to get killedt this. we should be hit hello at china for itse unfair tr practices but we're really blowing ourselves up is the art -- argumebe. : democrats trying to seem to be trying to steal back in pop allows trailed pitch from president trump. shawna: i think if this actually becomes a trade war, you will. my guys in illinois said that when we were there, even the conversation around nafta and the threat of thesefs tar he was like i have lost money

today. he wasmy like,ors look a field, i know what i've plannedy i've alr lost money because rf the threats of this money. andrea: keep y eyes on the all the industry. the midwest, where this was won and lost by the democrats. they're really going to be h hard. robert: we talked about bolts within north korea. him not being in thsroom s a lot. peter navarro on trailed. pushing the administration to take a harder stance on china and the e.u. peter: he has and they're very divided on this. you see this every day, the thritch floppy equal. todayhe trade war is off, on hold. the next day suddenly they're going back on it wholesale. they'reupposedly at odds sexrnings have had shouting matches. there really is a -- anied

cal divide between traditional businesses type, and fundamental believers in the orthodoxy of the party and then the populous, the nationalist side that believes the other side has been all wrong going back to the 1990's. rort:he president said that he wants to cut bilateral deals with canada, with mexico, with the e.u. is this what we should expect? andrea: i don't see any chance that cana is now going to negotiate with the u.s. bilaterally. they are so angry with the u.s. this is a deeply painful slam. has ed rick against mexico been so profoundly disagreeable. we saw a very sharp statement from the president of mexico a a be the wall. because he was in -- and the president tweeting they're paying for tall and nieto tweeting no, we're not.

peter: the conference is in mexico. the germans, british, and lsjapanese willbe there. there's a lot of tension dom -- coming into that meeting and they're already on edge for the ripping up of the iran deal. this is going to a -- be a big eting full of possible tensions. shawna: i believe the countries within.he effort u can't unilaterally negotiate with us . yw they have to do it as one bloc. andrea: and what we got out of the t.p.p., which was also hillary clinton's position. he said we're going to have all of theseat bilal negotiations. none of which has happened. mean china moving in and making their own dls. so we've created a huge vuum to a big disadvantage to american business in asia.e

robert: you h the brexit sentment still in the u. can. . they're not functioning at a total continent either. peter: absolutely, europe is really on edge about this italy we've heard nothing from the administration about it. in the past, when europe was on the edge, obama and bush speak out. there's no interest, i t seems like, in this white house and it has a huge impact on them because if europe issued lynn tanks economically, that will have a big impact on us. robert: how does this play in the mid terms? trailed? shawna: if you've seen people in the me.wh have actually felt the pain on this because that's what they vote on. if there are people in the mets who thought president trump was going to bring them something and they blame him for their

farmsma nong as much money, then i think republicans will probably suffer. robert: with shall see. we'll see what happess, as ent trump would say. thanks, everybody. we have to leave you a few minutes early tonight so you can support your loam pbs station.ru they support "washington week." we thank you and them. our conversation will continue on line on the "washington week" extra, w where wel talk about puerto rico's recovery and presidentialarnens. you can find that later tonight at p.org/washington week. i'm robert costa. enjoy your weekend.di >> f for "washington week" is provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctive.

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