the president used tough words against kim jong-un, rocket man, little rocket man. was before kim jong-un sent him a letter which seemed to have impressed the president dramatically, so much so that that is seemingly when this love affair, again to use the president's term, kind of began. >> right. i mean trump's behavior with north korea, anderson, reminds me of winston churchill's quip about the germans how they're always at your throat or at your feet. and donald trump was at kim jong-un's own throat in 2017 and then i turnhe turned on a dime. it's true you can't really credit anything that donald trump says as being a sincere sentiment, but the reality is it's been almost a year since the summit in singapore, and he has nothing to show for the way that he acts as a sycophant towards kim jong-un. it's simply not working, but donald trump will not stop doing it. in fact, he is undercutting people in his own administration like john bolton, who are trying to hold kim jong-un to account for his bad behavior, including the testing of missiles. trump is saying it does

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

what does it tell you that the president of the united states falls for what kim jong-un says? just seems to be an easy mark for dictators who flatter him. it's disgraceful. we can bemoan it, but it's da dangero dangerous. men like kim jong-un, putin, xi jinping see this behavior and learn to take advantage of it to do things no other president would allow them to get away with. we have got to in the united states congress, i think we've got to act to ensure that the world gets a different sense of what america is about and what we stand for. >> do you think it's okay that president trump insulted former vice president joe biden, though he is now a political rival of president trump's, while he was overseas? >> of course not. it's disgraceful. again, what's more important here is the message that it sends to our allies and adversaries around the world about how easy it is to manipulate the president of the united states. if i'm kim jong-un, i insult joe biden and suddenly donald trump is on my side and he forgives a missile test that's threatening south korea and japan? it also

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

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

despite aggressive steps from kim jong-un, president trump remaining optimistic that he could strike a deal to denuclearize north korea. we should pay attention to that portion of the tweet where president trump says kim jong-un knows that he is with him. it will be curious to see how some of the united states allies in that region, squoo pan and south korea respond to that, and also the parents of otto warmbier, the american who died after having been held in captivity in north korea for some time. his parents have been very critical of president trump's personal relationship with kim jong-un. boris sanchez, cnn, the white house. >>> let's talk about it with andrew stevens. let's talk about reaction in a moment. first, let's talk about the launches themselves. what were they and what message does north korea seem to be sending with this? >> reporter: well, the message seems to be quite clear, natalie, that north korea is frustrated and unhappy that it is not making any head way at all on negotiations with the u.s. about a denuclearized zone in the korean peninsula mainly because nort

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

he seems totally desperate to win kim jong-un's affection to not upset him in any way, to allow kim jong-un to continuously escalate possibly to the extent that we just discussed a nuclear test or icbm test. we're giving kim jong-un a lot more running room and we're getting nothing for it. >> peter, this is from your colleague annie carny. from his particular fixation on biden to his con city gags of democrats overall, mr. trump underlined the reality that his unshakable bond was with his twitter megatone. it was evident that his main interest was not where his hosts had gone to such lengths to direct it on security and trade in asia, but instead was on fighting with his perceived political enemies. and peter, who is there? who is around the president to ask about the rigor of foreign policy to see if it's being carried out and upheld? >> that's a great question. if he's losing trust in john bolton, that's a big if, it makes you wonder who is filling that gap. is it mike pompeo? patrick shanahan has been a low key figure at the defense department so far. who is the president leaning on? his

i'm pretty sure he's okay with kim jong-un not liking him. president trump is now using kim jong-un as a surrogate. president trump is pretty cool with vladimir putin saying bad things about democrats, so at this point what kind of people are supporting president trump overseas as his 2020 candidate and they know joe biden has a much stronger record on north korea than president trump does. >> it's schoolyard geopolitics. fascinating and troubling stuff. boris, you're on the ground in tokyo. while the focus on north korea and china, there is an escalation in iran. the president making comments and troop movements over the weekend and trying to see if japan can help bridge a dialogue. what's been the scene on the ground with the president and iran and trying to get japan in on those? >> it's certainly an interesting development having shinzo abe try to intervene and broker a negotiation, a discussion between president trump and the leadership in iran. it's unclear that will happen. we know it's something president trump has been looking for in

north korea feels they have the of russia and what kim jong-un is saying. it seems kim jong-un, at the moment, is testing president trump and obviously, president trump has said clearly, he thinks he can deal with north korea. it's not in his interest to make a big deal out of what kim jong-un has done with the projectiles. it's clear kim jong-un is showing dissatisfaction with the united states. how president trump is going to handle this is not clear. >> any potential that the testing or launching of projectiles could lead to new sanctions from the u.n., if not the u.s.? >> reporter: you have russia and china there. they will very likely block further sanctions placed on north korea. president trump says we have sanctions. he wants the maximum affect of the sanctions, but the sanctions are leaking baa they respect holding up their investigation and they border north korea and can have a direct impact on whether the sanctions hold. that's the problem. kim jong-un has the ear of president xi and the ear of vladimir putin and moscow and russia. they are key p

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

foreign soil and on an island when it comes to his unwavering support for north korean dictator kim jong-un, and that regime's dislike of fellow american and former vice president, joe biden. >> kim jong-un made a statement that joe biden is a low-iq individual. he probably is, based on his record. i think i agree with him on that. >> i'm not a fan. >> all while playing down north korea's recent missile firings, saying -- >> perhaps he wants to get attention. and perhaps not. who knows. it doesn't matter. >> reporter: that statement putting him at direct odds with his own national security adviser, john bolton, and his host japanese prime minister, shinzo abe, both say the rockets are a violation of u.n. resolutions. trump, instead, choosing to side with a brutal dictator. >> i view it differently. all i know is that there have been no nuclear tests, there have been no ballistic missiles going out, there have been no long-range missiles going out. and i think that some day, we'll have a deal. i'm not in a rush. >> reporter: on this global stage, the president also le levying new attacks on

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

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

the first resumption of denuclearization talks well in less than two years president trump and kim jong un's relationship went from name calling to holding two historic summits it all began when trump accepted an invitation from kim while holding talks with. sole u.s. secretary of state mike pompei of visited pyongyang soon after to set the ground rules for a trump kim meeting a month later south and north korean leaders held a historic meeting which ended in an agreement to denuclearize the peninsula in may that year pompei i visited kim again returning to the us with three americans who've been detained in north korea trump then announced that they'd meet in singapore off the brusque exchanges between the leaders the first historic summit was finally held on june twelfth and both men signed a denuclearization commitment agreement kim began to dismantle rocket launching sites although he was in the blige to disarm in february both leaders met again it will became known as the hanoi summit kim's nuclear weapons were top of the agenda however that event was cut short ending without a deal. jo

north korea has just released pictures of its leader kim jong un inspecting rocket launched from the country's east coast state media called it a strike drill south korea's president expressed serious concern over saturday's launch but u.s. president donald trump tweeted that kim jong un doesn't want to break the promises made to him referring to commitments to denuclearization. the u.s. is again sending mixed messages regarding the crisis in venezuela after speaking to president vladimir putin this week donald trump downplayed any russian involvement in venezuela but then on saturday his secretary of state contradicted him last month i visited colombia and saw firsthand the misery the murderers created with the russians and cubans help the same see as a desperation the playing out all across venezuela the must and the time for transition is now. syrian and russian government forces are continuing to strike rebel factions in a province in what is meant to be a deescalation zone these twenty two people been killed the fighting forcing thousands from their homes many of whom have alread

and they would likely tell him that continuing to tell kim jong-un he can get away with this behaviornals to kim jong-un again that he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants and that president trump will stay invested in this process. i think they would also urge him to try to multilateralize any response. russia and china voted with the united states at the united nations on three occasions until the trump administration to implement historically onerous sanctions on north korea. they fell down a bit on the implementation side, but they voted with us. vers that made the sanctions even more impactful. >>> thank you, samantha. >> thanks, fred. >>> russia wasn't looking to get involved with venezuela, but russia today says the foreign minister will meet with his counterpart. what should the u.s. role in the region be? over the last 24 hours, you finished preparing him for college. in 24 hours, you'll send him off thinking you've done everything for his well being. but meningitis b progresses quickly and can be fatal, sometimes within 24 hours. while meningitis b is uncommon, about 1

they hear a new york real estate development. >> i think kim jong-un or chairman kim as some people say is looking to create a nation with great strength economically. kim jong-un understands the believable economic ability that country has. it's locates between china and russia on one front and it's all waterfront property and it's a great location as we used to say in the real estate business. >> look, he's different, and something that's so intractable, maybe a different approach was worth trying, but where is the evidence two plus years in now that chairman kim gets and it willing to do what it takes to get the second enormous -- >> to do this in front of the prime minister. trump will do anything to make a deal land avoid short range ballistic missiles and that's what he's doing right now. the japanese are the only ones that will not talk to kim. they say we'll talk to you when denuclearization is handled. when the abductee issue is handled and when the short range missile issue is there and they are there saying we toiled so. >> it's interesting that the president did attend the e

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

east south korea is concerned about the latest weapons tests in north korea's state media saying kim jong un watched rocket launches on saturday u.s. president downtime tweeted that kim doesn't want to break his promise on denuclearization an unidentified body has been found in ben in after two french tourists and their guide were reported missing on wednesday they disappeared in the pen jari national park in the north near the border with turkey a facet of french government had warned citizens against traveling to the area due to groups linked to our i saw and al qaeda operating in the area south africa's ruling party is holding its final rally before wednesday's general election president cyril ramaphosa is ending campaigning in johannesburg the a.n.c. is marred by allegations of corruption those are the headlights. i will. be upset but only in a vision of saddam's clock rob and i wanted that effect on several months when i was one. of the best and most he has been kind of known to the face he could be human a billionaire and listen walk away leader. and senate. shake i look at it from the

and two and a half years in, he staked his ego on making a deal with kim jong-un and despite walking away from meetings that he could cut a deal with kim jong-un and second, the president has shown us he cannot acknowledge weaknesses or mistakes or he can't tell us that kim jong unk was wrong or the conversations with him was wrong and he can't say russian intervened in an election and he is doubling down and looking at his options and saying the deal was not working and we're not safer and dealing with kim jong-un. i don't see any other options for the president except to create a myth, ana. >> sabrina, remember when the president said this? >> we go back and forth and then we fell in love, okay? really, he wrote me beautiful letters and they're great letters. we fell in love. >> so that being said, short of a missile fired over kansas, sabrina, what would kim jong-un have to do to scuttle any further talks? >> well, that's precisely the challenge here. the president is ignoring the counsel of experts in his administration, and he has instead leaned heavily into this personal rapport

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

he dug in on his claim that kim jong-un insulted joe biden's intelligence. >> kim jong-un made a statementhat joe biden is a low i.q. individual. he probably is based on his record. i think i agree with him on that. >> cnn white house correspondent kaitlyn collins is there for us in tokyo. on the biden insult, i mean, do we even know where that conversation would have taken place? they were in hanoi together months before biden jumped in. >> reporter: right. and that's something that's come out of the north korean media recently. where essentially they were echoing criticisms that the president himself has made about joe biden. a potential 2020 democratic rival that we've reported at length is someone who is certainly taking up the most of the president's head space. and the president was given an opportunity to back off his endorsement of that criticism from the north korean dictator of joe biden. instead he said he agrees with his assessment and he doubled down on what he said on twitter a day before. a comment that sparked controversy and rebuke from not only democrats and critics of th

we want to send that strong message to chairman kim jong-un. i want to stress here that it is kim jong-il that is the director of the abductions, and his son, kim jong-un, was not involved. our prime minister at the time met with kim jong-il and they signed the pyongyang declaration in february of 2002. in accordance with that, japan and north korea, if we were to normalize relations, then the wealth of natural resources in north korea would be very attractive and the basis for potential economic development in north korea. and chairman kim should be aware of that. the u.s. and japan must cooperate on this issue. currently, there's a very strong relationship of trust between president trump and prime minister abe. we see this as an excellent opportunity for us. president trump brought up the abduction issue with chairman kim at both of their summits. we have now moved as of this month into the new reiwa era in japan. there was a summit in the u.s. and japan in april. trump and abe talked about the abductions. president trump month will be the fi

if kim jong-un is not violating the missile agreement, what would you consider a violation? first of all, i think kim jong-un, or chairman kim, is looking to create a nation that has great strength economically. i think he's very much -- i talk to him a lot about it, and he's very much into the fact that he believes like i do that north korea has tremendous economic potential, like perhaps few other developing nations anywhere in the world. and i think he is looking to develop that way. he knows that with nuclear, that's never going to happen. only bad can happen. he understands that. he is a very smart man. he gets it well. so i think that he is -- he is going to try at some point, i'm in no rush at all. the sanctions remain. we have our hostages back. we, as you know, are continuing to get the remains. a lot of good things are happening. and very importantly, there's been no nuclear testing for two years. i looked at a chart the other day. during past administrations, there were many numbers that were have high, 10, 12, 18, having to do with missile launches and nuclear te

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

staying with kim is the best course of action personally because he doesn't want to admit that kim jong-unnd is a global menace. at this point the question is what else is president trump going to let kim jong-un get away with. and there's a juxtaposition. here mike pence, vice president pence was just laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier, marking fallen soldiers, while president trump is in japan saying that these short range missile launches don't bother him, that he's not disturbed by them. these short range missiles threaten american soldiers that are currently stationed in japan, 54,000 of them. but again, he doesn't seem to care because he's so thirsty to stay with kim and to win a nobel prize. >> eliana, let's talk about some republican reaction to this, congressman adam kinslinger, saying, it's memorial day weekend and you're taking a shot at biden while praising a dictator. this is just plain wrong. he's not afraid to criticize president trump. could this be a sign of republicans becoming tired of the president's outrageous comments? >> just as it's a custom for the

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

to have to come back to the bargaining table from kim jong-un's table, give him something. >> it's no longer up to the two men. there's a shift to another major player in this, russian president, vladimir putin who recently met with kim jong-un and spoke with president trump. what more have we learned about this call and what may develop out of it? >> out of the call with president putin and president trump? >> yes. >> president trump, himself, talked to repofrters and tweete about it. the thing catching the most attention is how they talked about the russia hoax and dismissing everything about the mueller investigation, not just the notion there was no conspiracy found. the notion there was something to look at with russia's activities is in the category of hoax now. the larger point is, under previous presidents, the attempts to keep north korea in a box to deal with its nuclear ambitions took place with six countries. the great powers of the world, including russia, china and the united states. they failed. and president trump has been trying to get away from that saying the six ta

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

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

>> yes, and by the way, although this doesn't violate kim jong-un's self-imposed moratorium, it couldhe sanctions on ballistic missiles. if indeed it was a ballistic missile. we need to respond and if we don't, kim jong-un is going to see the green light to further provocations. this comes out of the kim family playbook. i think he needs to understand that belligerence is not going to work this time. >> over the past, there has been this feeling between south korea and the u.s. and payment and humanitarian assistance, things would calm down and the cycle would start again. we just got this news recently of this really poor harvest in north korea, the quarter of the population that could be food insecure. could this be an opportunity for the u.s.? this is a play by kim to get some help for the north korean people? is there an overlap here? >> there is some overlap, but generally, the kim family and the leadership don't really care about the food shortages. they do care about the sanctions broadly. and i don't agree with, gordon, i don't think we need to have, as the u.s., a strong resp

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

>> certainly, if you're kim jong-un, this is great. donald trump has come giving gifts. he has given this legdg legitim he has weakened sanctions. so from the perspective of kim, it's been all take. so if donald trump is just giving him all of these things and the u.s. has receivd nothing, the u.s. is so much weaker as a result of donald trump's engagement with north korea, and the north koreans are massively stronger than they were. so no wonder the north koreans were happy. and lindsey graham, who knows better, lindsey graham knows a lot about national security. if he is so craven to think this absolutely terrible situation is a big win for us, then we even have bigger problems here at home. >> listen to how the white house is responding to questions about particularly the biden portion of that tweet. let's listen. >> can you explain why americans should not be concerned that the president of the united states essentially siding with a murderous authoritarian dictator over a former vice president of the united states? >> chuck, the president's not siding that. i think t

a previous weapons tests, kim jong—un was deciding how advanced the weapons were. well as us. we hear about food shortages and in north korea and that cannot be going very well for kim jong—un in terms of the politics of that? that's right. we heard that national defence strength will prevent the recurrence of the famine the country suffered in the 1990s and of course last year ‘s harvest was disappointing and now we are seeing credible reporting that hundreds of thousands of north koreans are under food stress so this does band of the drums of nationalism and shows that kim jong—un is taken the country's defence seriously but it will not do anything to stem north korean economic problems in the short—term. cyclone fani is bearing down on one of india's biggest cities, kolkata, after hitting the state of odisha on friday. the storm — one of the worst in the region for years — has weakened as it heads towards bangladesh. at least eight people have died. richard forrest reports. is cyclone fani bowed up india's east coast, towns and cities further north were preparing

is this a good cop bad cop dynamic or is the president just siding with kim jong un, or is there an actual fracture? >> reporter: it's really tough to tell. it's very clear that president trump is doubling down. he is all in on his personal diplomatic initiative with kim jong un, and he's willing to overlook things that -- like short range ballistic missile launches, that took place less than three weeks ago from north korea, and as a result you had this strange situation wherein this very restricted bilateral meeting where there were four american and japanese officials in the room. the japanese prime minister, john bolton, the white house national security adviser and president trump, president trump was the only one in the room that does not publicly believe that those missile launches were violations of united nations security council resolutions. and so he said that on a stage next to the japanese prime minister. this was a visit that was celebrating the alliance between the u.s. and japan, high on symbolism, low on real concrete substance. the white house did not get a trade deal wit

are the real masterminds behind the killing of kim jong il not south korea has said it believes north korean intelligence was behind the killing of kim jong un now what this trial has done is it has helped shed light on a few things such as the fact that kim jong un when he died had on him of antidote to that nerve agent that killed him suggesting that he had real concerns about being murdered but the fact that this ultimate conclusion of the trial ends with no one being convicted of the murder also needs many questions on that and it also means that a very brazen committed in broad daylight with many people as witnesses captured on the t.v. has gone on punished. for the moment we will leave it florence or flows to the kuala lumpur airport thank you will keep your message is there is investigative unit has obtained exclusive images of one of the north korean men suspected of being involved in kim jong un's murder choi is a chemist who was detained and then released by malaysian authorities there is will jordan has discovered he's enjoying his freedom in china. karaoke after a killing this man is suspected of being instrumental in your source

the president's good words towards kim jong-un, will not change his behavior. re of the kim family regime and we will get nothing in return by being nice to kim jong-un. >> reporter: in its new statement, kim's regime voiced, "grave concern the that the u.s. had conducted so-called subcritical nuclear tests in february" even though kim said last year he had conducted his own such tests. a subcritical nuclear test ensures all the components that make the bomb work like the trigger are functional without letting the bomb actually explode. north korea also slams trump's national security adviser john bolton and secretary of state mike pompeo in the new statement, saying they, "have insulted the dignity of our stream leadership and spitted out abusive language to north korea." >> i think that is an effort to separate president trump from his advisers. what kim may be doing, one, is mirror imaging. he got bad advice from his own advisers. he thinks president trump is getting bad advice from his, but i think he would really like to purge bolton and pompeo from trump's

trump: well, kim jong-un made a statement that joe biden is a low iq individual.e probably is based on his record. i think i agree with him on that. but at the same time, my people think it could have been a violation, as you know. i view it differently. i view it as a man who perhaps wants to get attention. and perhaps not. who knows? it does not matter. all i know is there have been no nuclear test. there have been no ballistic missiles going out. there have been no long-range missiles going out. and i think that someday we will have a deal. i'm not in a rush. tremendous sanctions being put on the country of north korea. and again, kim jong-un understands the unbelievable economic potential that country has. it is located between russia and china on one side and south korea the other. and it is all waterfront property. it is a great location, as we used to say in the real estate business. i think he sees that. and i have to tell you what other country. i really believe that iran would like to make a deal. i think that is very smart of them. i think that is a pos

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

once again the president is taking the view of an adversary in this case north korea's kim jong-un over the advice of the president's own aides. over the weekend in a tweet president trump said he was confident that kim would keep his promise not to test ballistic missiles despite the fact that just two launches just this month alone have happened most recently on may 9th john bolton says the tests violated a u.n. security council resolution, but today during a news conference with shinzo abe whose country views the missile launches as a threat, the president says this. >> my people think it may be a threat. i view it differently. perhaps he wants to get attention and perhaps not. who knows. i am very happy with the way it's going, and intelligent people agree with me. >> you're not bothered by the small missiles? >> i am personally not. >> the president also dug in on his claim that kim jong-un insulted joe biden's intelligence. >> kim jong-un made a statement that joe biden is a low i.q. individual. he probably is based on his record. i think i agree with him on that. >> kaitlyn colli

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

it shows how important the summit was for kim jong-un to be suck seeding. so maybe now there's an opportunity to show some flexibility, the president, president trump and kim jong-un, both sides on the manish uwhich is denuclearization. let's get rid of some weapons, some missiles, destroy them, inspections. some sanctions relief instead of all or nothing which is what both sides want, so i think the last recommendation to president trump don't give this guy another summit until we're able to get some daylight on negotiating strategy on what we're ready to do and north korea is ready to do, because if you appropriate tate oh, we're going to -- the two leaders are going to make a deal, they don't need their advisers an they don't have a negotiating framework. hanoi will be another summit and failure. patience. have a strategy, and we don't have a strategy and the north koreans don't have a strategy either. >> ambassador, thank you so much. ambassador bill richardson speaking with us about north korea. >> thank you. >>> boeing does not appear to be fixing one

she's the one who announces big tests, big things that kim jong-un wants to show off. essment is kim jong-un is trying to pressure the u.s. president into doing something. he has made it clear he wants him to change his attitude by the end of the year and get back to the negotiations on north korean terms, but he's not pushing him so far that it could backfire on north korea. john? >> fascinating to watch. look at those images released by the north koreans. subtle is not the word i'm trying to use. paula hancocks live in seoul, thanks very much. >>> add north korea to a hot spot list that includes venezuela. add a curious call with vladimir putin. guess what didn't come up? s, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. humira can help stop the clock. prescribed for 15 years, humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. vo: humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections including tubercu

president trump goes from fire and fury with kim jong-un to love letters with kim jong-un. this is something john bolton is aware of at a deep level. he encounters it daily. it's part of the challenge of being national security adviser. he doesn't leave, quit like so many others because he wants to be part of the power structure. >> frank figliuzzi, let me read you some of the dictator-like conduct from the president. if you could just continue to flesh out the image of what is evaluated when foreign leaders and foreign governments and especially american adversaries try to figure out how to get to or pull one over on the president. attacking the president, calling the media enemies of the people, supporting a propaganda machine, retweeting things false, fake videos, fake news. joking about running for two more terms, not respecting the diplomatic norms. encouraging, tolerating violence on his behalf, questioning and deny legitimacy of political opponents. what does that look like from points abroad? >> well, look, robert just used the word chaos. we are in chaos. this is a