that is exactly how that north korean movie ends. amatically with the north korea but this is the highest value concession that the us has to make set to play it at the beginning with no concrete promises of anything, as an explorer treat mission, it is an orthodox, i will say that. what are the risks and possible rewards? well, the possible reward is that i do not think north korea will give up do not think north korea will give up its nuclear weapons but perhaps it was a fundamentally different relationship with the united states and perhaps president trump is willing to live with that nuclear north korea. if you accept it as a nuclear power you may have a better relationship. that is rosy scenario the downside is, the president realises that will not give up their nuclear weapons and he feels he has been taken advantage of and so it will be worst year. china has clearly been applying sanctions seriously widget is not been the case in the past. the chinese have a role to play. they have the opportunity to put pressure on the north k

the first us president meeting with north korean leader. iations regarding south korea and north korea? —— back door negotiations. sanctions against north korea could be lifted before the meeting, for example? there was a 6—point agreement that came out at the meeting. we have not seen any confirmation by the north korean side as of yet but right now, with the agreement made in pyongyang, there was a piece that was reported that there was a secret message from kim jong—un that there was a secret message from kimjong—un kim that there was a secret message from kim jong—un kim two that there was a secret message from kimjong—un kim two president trump. we are going to be piecing together the news reports and other revelations coming out from various meetings but at this stage, to create this kind of momentum, there are question marks about whether we will get to denuclearisation. this isa will get to denuclearisation. this is a commitment and it is a very long process and unlikely to get done by may as well. what are the proxies? what are the

that gives the north korean leader and the north koreans some legitimacy.he north koreans have told us for years the next time they meet with the united states they will be coming to the table as a nuclear weapon state and that is the status that they will bring to the table if and when this meeting occurred. that's mistake number one. i would also suggest that the president and his staff have violated what i like to call the rule number one of presidential summit ri, you don't engage the president of the united states in a summit unless the president and his adversary both understand what the summit is going to produce, what the outcome is, and i'd say a third mistake, quite frankly, is that the president is convinced or has been convinced that the north koreans have committed themselves to denuclearization. they've done no such thing and so far there has not been not a single utterance by the north korean leader or the north korean media about denuclearization or any commitment to that. no public reference to that at all. we should be concerned about this

president donald trump and north korean leader kim jong un now they could lead to a potential breakthrough in the nuclear standoff with north korea german chancellor angela merkel reacted a short while ago cautiously welcoming this a potentially historic development here is what she said. this is my smile colas a glimmer of hope it needs work because of course really seeing a deescalation would be wonderful because for all of us the nuclearization of north korea has been a grave concern in the chance on america they're reacting well other key players in the north korean nuclear crisis have also weighed in china urged the two countries to find a political resolution and russia called the first ever planned talks between the leaders of the us and north korea a step in the right direction and it was south korea that appears to have convinced trump and kim to soften their war of words and embrace diplomacy. this is the man doing the running between pyongyang and washington d.c. and he's failing reached a major milestone. poor president president from you know meeting north korean leader kim jo

what is going on inside the mind of the north korean leader kim jong-un is pretty much anyone's guessso we traveled to california to meet a grown up of americans who watched north korea obsessively trying to separate truth from propaganda. they are not spies or government employees, they are just a grown up of academics following a situation that could only be described as one thing. >> it's crazy, it's absurd this incredibly poor backwards country run by this crazy-looking guy should have the ability to strike the united states with nuclear weapons. >> jeffrey lewis is an advocate but in the case of north korea, he says that ship has sailed. >> do you think north korea has the capability to strike the u.s.? >> oh, yeah. >> monterray, california is home to the institute are lewis is a professor. it's not a secret department of the cia or nsa, it's part of a liberal arts college. there are no spies here, just a team of researchers working what is known as open source intelligence. >> we can function sort of like a parallel intelligence community and analyze photographs, videos, build c

and frankly, his new national security adviser has not been through about talking to the north koreans only ally north korea. they have a big amount of influence. south korea has undertaken this show over. the south koreans did go to the chinese and brief them on presumably, the chinese have their own methods of finding out what has actually happened. thank you so much to joining actually happened. thank you so much tojoining us, despite that lyme in the background. the louvre museum in paris says it may allow its most treasured painting, the mona lisa, to go on tour in france — the first time it's left the building in almost half a century. da vinci's masterpiece has only officially travelled abroad twice before. the pair of lucky locations were japan, and the usa for two exhibitions in 1963. a new edition of the history of that trip — the mona lisa in camelot — has just been published. trip — the mona lisa in camelot — jane o'brien went to the national gallery of art in washington to find out more. the immortal masterpiece of leonardo da vinci — mona lisa — or la gioconda — is now in

what is going on inside the mind of the north korean leader kim jong-un is pretty much anyone's guessaveled to california to meet a grown up of americans who watched north korea obsessively trying to separate truth from propaganda. they are not spies or government employees, they are just a grown -- group of academics following a situation that could only be described as one thing. >> it's crazy, it's absurd this incredibly poor backwards country run by this crazy-looking guy should have the ability to strike the united states with nuclear weapons. >> jeffrey lewis is an advocate for nuclear nonproliferation. but in the case of north korea, he says that ship has sailed. >> do you think north korea has the capability to strike the u.s.? >> oh, yeah. they can hit the united states with a nuclear weapon. >> monterray, california is home to the middlebury institute where lewis is a professor. it's not a secret department of the cia or nsa, it's part of a liberal arts college. there are no spies here, just a team of researchers working what is known as open source intelligence. >> we can f

i told president president from you know meeting north korean leader kim jong un. is committed. to do provide. kim pledged that north korea really did freeing from any for the nuclear war this old tests then he expressed this and you're going to meet president trump that's as possible it is a sentiment shared by the u.s. president hu confirmed that a meeting is being planned. to historic breakthrough comes after south korean negotiators held talks simpy on yang on monday it was here they learned that denuclearization was on the menu. far from giving up their bombs in recent years north korea has been ratcheting up its mesereau program and the threats. from fired back with warnings of annihilation and insults for kim jong il. rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. on the front lines of this conflict the capitals of the korean peninsula relief and distrust so it is good news now everything is heading the right way but you know that judging from kim jong un's character i don't think he will give a lap and he's easily. the i can't believe either of them i

understand -- to real north korean experts. we are all students of north korea, trying to understand what is happening. we should start a pool today. is kim jong-un in beijing or not? interesting to see if he is and what comes about. if he is in beijing, it makes logical sense from the chinese and north korean perspective. no one would want the first meeting with a head of state to be president trump. he will meet with president moon, first. that is a special case, the first outsider from the korean peninsula in the region being president trump would be historic. it would put china in a difficult position. both china and north korea, from both are perspectives, -- their perspectives, it makes sense both meet to discuss the way ahead. s china'sun need backing and china does not want to be left out in the cold. possible there is a meeting that takes place. the big thing is the meeting. day, i don'tl this think north korea has really acknowledged they have made the offer to president trump. allusions been some to the condition of r

approach when it comes to engaging the north koreans. right to be fair to the administration they undertook a very comprehensive policy review when they came into office of the first one before the iran review and so on and they develop a wide range of possible options from the one hand they consider just accepting a north korean nuclear program so you have a mutual term relationship such as we have with russia on the side that was unacceptable a previous ministrations the other extreme various first uses of military force either an all or invasion or we've heard recently about this single strike to try and intimidate them they reviewed possibly assassinating the north korean side so they went through the entire gamut and considered all the options and basically could decided to focus on diplomacy trying to work with the chinese and other countries to induce a change in your screen saver and sanctions to try and put pressure on the north korean government as well as and keep its ability to build up its import the material and technology

engaging with north koreans. i think the way forward for us is going to be challenging vis-À-vis not south korea, but i also think japan. i think abe's interest may be deferred chance in this space politically at home, but also there was a little bit of surprise factor when it came to the japanese in terms of the rollout of the summit and how it was excepted. i think south korea is going to be essential that we are in lockstep. that's going to take a lot of behind the scenes diplomacy and especially with prime minister abe is keeping japan is going to also be very challenging a thing. >> you mentioned you were just talking to some japanese friends and that's obviously another player here that sometimes people are forgetting a little bit and prime minister abe and trump have searched a full speed ahead and they seem to have surprised some folks. how do you think the japanese are reacting and how they plan this going forward? >> i think the japanese are anxious and i think the fulcrum of diplomacy is not involving

the latest headlines: president trump has agreed to hold a historic meeting with the north korean leaderth korea confirms the north has agreed to refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests. well let's get more on this now. drjim walsh is an expert in international security and senior research associate at the massachusetts institute of technology's security studies programme. he is also one of the few americans to travel to north korea on the nuclear issue. how do you see all those? well, honestly, somehow i have managed to be both elated and horrified at the same time. obviously it is great if the parties are talking. if they are talking, the chances of a shooting war decline, whether that is a war that happens by accident or by design. on the other hand, it doesn't really feel like this has been well thought out. it sort of sounds like it has been decided out of the blue, without a lot of preparation. and so if it goes poorly it might be a situation where, six months from now, we're actually in a more dangerous situation. so i am happy they are talking, but my gosh, i hope they

korea until they see some significant movement on the north koreanobviously, north and south, but what about china and japan. any reaction from them this morning? >> yeah, the japanese, abe actually spoke to donald trump shortly after that announcement. japan has concerns about being left out of the loop on this and considering missiles have been fired directly over japan. you can see their concerns about this. japan's line is that it is all well and good to have meetings, but the proof in the meeting will be that they want to see something actually concrete come out of this which is why they're saying you have to keep these sanctions in place and they are pointing out very clearly that we've been down this path before. they agreed to nuclear disarm disarmorme disarmorment. and china all along said dialogue is the only way to solve the nuclear issue on the korean peninsula. but, again, they're also warning that this is going to be a very, very long and quite possibly bumpy path before we get to any significant undertaking involving denuclearization.

is they've offered or if they've offered it at all because we didn't hear it directly from the north koreansough the south koreans. so the idea that we're ever going to get north korea to give up their nuclear weapons is farfetched. but that they're going to do anything between now and two months from now is impossible. >> how much do you think, maggie, this has to do with the president's mind set? you've been writing about, you know, the way things are in the white house, sort of the chaos, the difficulties. is this an offshoot of that? >> i think to some extent. look, i think you certainly can't rule out the possibility that he was doing this to change what we're all talking about on television, right, which he watches all the time. and i think he has realized that the stormy daniels story is mushrooming. it is getting more attention, and i think he wants to knock it off of the headlines. >> it's pretty incredible to think that he would agree to meet with kim jong-un in order to change the conversation in cable news. >> in his word, everything is equal. i'm not disagreeing with you. i'm ju

i don't trust the north koreans. i think these people are likely to renege the way they have for years and years but you cannot fault donald trump for trying to ratchet down nuclear tensions. we sat here night after night worried about missile tests and a nuclear war and the president is trying to protect the american people. i wouldn't pooh-pooh it. >> joe, do you give the president credit for trying something radical? >> i mean, look, i think everybody's got to be hoping that this turns out better than a lot of us think it might turn out. but it's kind of like two guys who have been mailing bomb threats to each other now actually getting some positive stuff because they're meeting to discuss not bombing each other. i mean that's literally what's been going on. >>> we're going to take a quick break. more on this surprising news about north korea. and later the latest in the ongoing drama surrounding the adult film star stormy daniels. new information her lawyer's sharing with us and what the next steps might be. all

a north korean soldier defected and came under fire from the north even after he had crossed into the south. that was a violation of the korean honest disagreement he was rescued by south korean soldiers and flown down a special is since recovered from his wounds. while the border between the two koreas is closed the one between the north and china is open . this is the chinese city of dun dun. and this is the view across the yalu river to north korea the friendship bridge links the two countries and is a major conduit for goods going in both directions. i mean we have a couple sources in downtown as well this is a convoy of trucks going through the chinese customs house just before they cross the friendship bridge but you can see that the share amount of cob varies you would need an army people to be coming here and things and the current u.n. sanctions ostensibly require all of this to be very thorough he said just to ensure it is night and materials that may breach sanctions but on a good day you might have two three hundred of these kind of trucks passing the bridge. and each one

so that was chancellor angela merkel of germany no other key players in the north korean nuclear crisis have also weighed in china urged the two countries to find a political solution russia court the fullest ever plans talks between the leaders of the u.s. and north korea a step in the right direction and it was south korea that dippy has to have convinced trump and kim to soften their war of words and embrace diplomacy. this is the man doing the running between p.r. nyang and washington d.c. and he's failing reached a major milestone. by poor president president thought that no meeting north korea kim jong un. is committed to. kim pledged that north korea really do train from any for the nuclear. tests but he stressed this that even if the new president from that's on as possible it is a sentiment shared by the u.s. president who confirmed that a meeting is being planned. for historic breakthrough comes after south korean negotiators held talks in pyongyang on monday it was here they learned that denuclearization was on the menu is. far from giving up their bombs in recent years north

north koreans are agreed to discuss denuclearization. are any of those concessions, in quotation marks, major from the north? >> it's all promising. we should all be prapproaching this with a sense of hope and optimism. i will point out the key issue is the denuclearization. the rest of it the north koreans have in the past dealt with. we don't have any confirmation from the north koreans that this is, in fact, true. we are hoping that the south korean characterization of this is correct. it's important to point out the south koreans did not believe they had this locked down enough to propose it. what happened as our reporting pointed out is that the president decided to meet with the south korean national security adviser in prompt tu. he discovered in that meeting that one of the things kim jong-un said is i would like to meet with president trump at some point. he seized on that and said, all right, go in and announce it. it's not yet clear what the south koreans have said. it's important to point out that they have only said it with t

. >> there is no one in the administration who has face to face experience talking to north koreans. >> joel with a state department veteran who neg groeotiated wit north. what's your biggest piece of advice ahead of the talks? >> meet with people who have face to face experience talking to the north koreans. don't rely on people who are just reading briefing papers. >> beyond north korean talks, newly announced tariffs and legal questions surrounding an allege add fair with a porn star, president trump is focused on re-election, announcing in pennsylvania last night his updated campaign slogan, will be keep america great! elaine. >> errol barnett, thanks. >>> tony dokoupil has more now on pennsylvania's closely watched special election. >> get out on tuesday. vote for rick saccone. we can leave right now, come on. >> president trump traveled to moon township, pennsylvania, saturday night, outside of pittsburgh, to rally for state representative republican rick saccone. >> is president trump popular in western pennsylvania? saccone struggling to lock up the special election in a distr

i interviewed a north korean defector. this is what he said all north koreans are told.hich is why he thinks kim jong-un will never give up his nuclear weapons. >> cases like saddam hussein, we don't have weapons you eventually become a sacrifice by the stronger power. you have to have nuclear weapons. eric: that's been the key to kim jong-un's survival so far. >> that's right. i remember when we had the pope visit us in congress. the next day speaker boehner announced he was stepping down as speaker. the timing of things in life. we are just coming out of the olympics. we were mentioning the policies that got enacted. for whatever reason will be the timing, beyond the economic pressure he may want to go on you a different path. but it doesn't mean we trust them or have all the answers as to why they want to sit down. by the way, this might not work out. that's why it's important to continue the pressure on their country. we lose nothing. we continue military exercises and ramp up economic pressure against the north koreans. if it works out great, and if it doesn't, we d

many orphans and many maimed so the whole of the war full remains controversial but sickly for north koreansand for south koreans because they've still got family members that have split since not fifty three once when the war ended there's been no communication between the two sides so the issues about. alleged germ warfare a part and parcel of the discourse which takes place in north korea this is a controversial topic at the time in the one nine hundred fifty s. remains controversial now there's still no smoking gun evidence this to took place but it forms part of the official discourse it doesn't however form part of the day to day discussions of north koreans i lived and worked in north korea for two years all over the country not so different settings in farms and hospitals and . clinics and. talked to lots and lots of different people it was never raised once as an issue with me not even in passing where some other issues were race of course things like the fact that there were so many men killed in the one nine hundred fifty s. in the war that there were a disproportionate amounts of

i think improvement in the north korea china relationship ahead of the enter korean summit and u.s. north korea summit will we helpful in solving the problem in the korean peninsula such as denuclearization and establishment of peace and we are just getting news from the chinese foreign ministry that the president xi jinping will visit south korea on thursday and friday will bring you more on that in our next full news bulletins moving on now and the u.s. ambassador to the united nations says the security council should be ashamed that the bombing of eastern ghouta continues despite a cease fire agreement syrian government forces with the russian air support intensified its offensive to retake the rebel held on place more than a month ago u.s. ambassador nikki haley blamed the two countries for what she called a slaughter but her syrian counterpart struck back. russian president vladimir putin has declared wednesday a national day of mourning for the sixty four people killed in a shopping center fire on sunday at least forty one children were among those who died in the shopping cent

let's not forget that the north koreans did promise something. they promised to denuclearizing, they stopped to missile test and they realize we're continuing with our missile exercises. the united states haas made zero concessions. north korea has made some promises. again, this meeting won't take place without concrete actions that match the promises that have been made by north korea. >> i want to follow up on that. you think that two months time period is enough time to make sure that they will actually fulfill those promises? he said he wants to do it by may. >> we're working on the determination of the time. let's not be lost in the fact that this didn't happen overnight. this maximum pressure campaign and this process has been ongoing since the president first took office. for the first time in a long time, the united states is actually having conversations from a position of strength, not weaknesses and the one that north korea finds itself in due to the maximum pressure campaign. >> does that mean it might not be made? >> we haven't said

the north koreans have been seeking this kind of recognition for decades. e south korean president will meet with kim jong un along the dmz next month. it will be the first time kim jong un has ever met a world leaders since taking power in 2011. with the significance the north korean leader acknowledge the u.s. and south korea join -- slated to take place in the coming weeks after the paralympics finish will go ahead. in the past, she kim jong un had seen those exercises as a threa, and exercise to invade the north and over through his regime and has responded with aggressive ballistic missile tests. >> i told president trump that in our meeting, north korean leader kim jong un is committed to denuclearization. kim pledged that north korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests. he understands that the routine joint exercises between the republic of korea and the united states must continue. >> shannon: from the pentagon's point of view, that was the most significant part of this announcement tonight. kim jong un's last icbm test was novembe

the north koreans will probably ask us for something return in return. perhaps the exercises we do with the south koreans every year, maybe we can have the north koreans watch them. we delayed them for the olympics. there's a lot of intermediate steps that can be taken. i would be more relaxed if we had an ambassador in seoul right now. >> what about the recognition of that country by us? could it be on the table? >> that would be part of sort of a longer range ultimate solution because i think the real card that we hold is a real peace treaty. right now there's just a kind of a negotiated stalemate. >> yeah. >> armistice is, exactly. and that's not a peace treaty, not a recognition of the democratic people's republic of korea or that regime. ultimately that's what kim jong-un says he wants to guarantee we're not going to change his regime and that we'll accept his country. >> let's stay with us. right now the we're joined by nuclear security analyst joe cirrincione. what's on the table as we await this announcement? >> we're going to get at least announc

today discussions of north koreans i lived and worked in north korea for two years all over the country not so different settings in farms and hospitals and . clinics and. talked to lots and lots of different people it was never raised once as an issue with me not even in passing where some other issues were race of course things like the fact that there were so many men killed in the one nine hundred fifty s. in the war that there were disproportionate amounts of women left alive today for a brief moment there was a slight bit of deescalation but obviously the tension is still there how do you see things playing out on the korean peninsula well there are different objectives the north koreans want to preserve regime security which for them means both territorial defense proper vention of milledge intervention from the outside but also security for the current government and for those in power it saw what happened in iraq to saddam hussein and in libya to gadhafi and their argument is that if those countries had maintained nuclear weapons program or similar sorts of programs they wouldn

there are these talks that have been going on between the south koreans and north koreans and i'm told that the content what we'll be hearing from the south korean leader in just a few momtds is, quote, interesting. so there is going to be more, i think, than just this information about kim jong-un inviting the president of the united states to meet with him. but make no mistake, we have gone from the president referring to kim jong-un as little rocket man, and the president talking about fire and fury, to the potential for a very unlikely and incredible and, dare i say, reality tv style meeting between two very different and in some ways similar leaders. >> i mean, it's incredible. we are learning now from ryan brown, pentagon reporter, that some pentagon officials were caught off-guard. didn't know there was announcement to make. of course, jim, as you've been talking about, the president didn't even tell his own staff that he was making this announcement. >> that's right. >> how caught off-guard was everybody who works for the white house here? >> reporter: they were caught off here

nuclear or missile tests. >> reporter: it is an extraordinary turn of events after a spate of north koreanissile tests last year and now nuclear test in september and months of insults. >> he is an expert on north korea and its nuclear program and says the north is eager to talk because economic sanctions are hurting the regime. >> it is not going to be easy because the north koreans are very good negotiators, they know how to play the game. >> what is the game that they play? get everything they want and give nothing in return. >> north korea has also reneged on previous deals. other sitting u.s. presidents have decided against meeting with north korean leaders and rewarding them with some legitimacy without getting concessions from them first. >> is it possible that they are better negotiators than president trump who prides himself on being able to make a deal? >> the north koreans have had 2582 years of experience dealing with americans, but in the states, the administration has changed. that is what the north sees as american strategic weakness, changes in personnel, changes in charac

seizing the moment south korea's president in has been quick to credit both north korean and u.s. leaders or the trumpeter to no one denuclearization m.p.c. on the korean peninsula a beginning to be realized i believe the punk shanklin pics and paralympics as well as our endeavors for peace will help create a new global peace all the credit should go to those people around the world who wish for peace should you know. moon's liberal government says the way is now open to achieving denuclearization of the korean peninsula through peaceful means something almost inconceivable until recently but many conservatives say it's only been made possible by the u.s. threat of force so i think the south koreans and the north koreans kind of put their heads together and said well we need to come up with something otherwise we might all wind up having u.s. rockets landing in congo where they're acting out of fear or seeing an opportunity much credit will go to south korea. special envoys went to pyongyang on a mission of hope bringing back a landmark agreement and seoul exploited its good fortun

just pushed out this morning to help people understand in a very concise way the debate over the north korean policy and the way forward for the united states. so, with that, let's start the discussion here. obviously we have had a lot of news on north korea as of late. we have a summit, potentially on a presidential nature between the u.s. president and the leader of north korea by may is what we understand the timing will be. but i thought we would start with just getting your opening impressions on what this potential diplomatic opening means and what you think both sides are looking for in this process and what you see happening in the coming days and weeks. thank you for inviting me here today i'm happy to be here today and thank you all of you for showing up for this important discussion and important subject, so i think that for those of us who have been very supportive of the idea of a diplomatic initiative to address the north korean crisis the announcement of a summit i think brought about a moment of be careful what you wish for. and by that i mean if you look at these leaders both

so, the white house is left scrambling to prepare a meeting between north korean leader, kim jong-un and the u.s. prosecute. where could it happen? when could it happen? will there be preconditions? there are no answers, yet. president trump tweeted, the deal with north korea is very much in the making and, if completed will be a good one for the world. that follows a confusing day with the white house. jeff zeleny has that. >> reporter: the white house is scrambling to follow through with what could be the biggest diplomatic gamble in generations. face-to-face talks with president trump and kim jong-un. a day after the president stunned the world by accepting it on the spot, it became clear how hard it will be. >> the president will not have a meeting without seeing concrete steps and actions by north korea. >> reporter: white house press secretary sarah sanders tried delivering a clear message. >> the maximum pressure campaign. the process has been ongoing. the united states is going to continue that maximum pressure campaign. >> reporter: left many questions unanswered about the nu

parents do not want a north korean education for their children while their wish is for their children to speak the language and then the culture and live as proud korean people in japan and europe in a way that's why they send their children here. that it's not south that they identify. and they sing it yes they school students go on a two week excursion to pyongyang. for most of them it's the first and only time i don't visit north korea. myself and other people here we own cars we go for holidays. it's unrealistic for us to have these sorts of lifestyles to go back to north korea not. bent over the day we go back to the motherland will be when really it's unified holcombe got a prosperous new and free. i go on into a job. amazing up with fifteen year old beyond song to hear what the students think . it's lunch time and they can take is a hard knock to do you know when you're trying to get a feeling like the new kid at school i try to get to north beyond some crazy jeff garcia voice the way she did her good pay for good. i was expecting was going to be very great very regimented i'm

how do you deal with a north korean bully? our president is the right person at the right time in the right place and for the first time, we may actually see a slow down and perhaps even north korea making the decision that there nuclear weapons program is simply not worth the cost, the increased satisfactions and a president who will stand toe to toe with a north korean bully goes a long way. david: now we have had a couple of presidents, ex-presidents go to north korea both bill clinton and jimmy carter went to bring back hostages. i don't say prisoners because when they take americans they're hostages of the north korean government but we've never seen a current president go to north korea under the communist dictatorship there. are there any downsides to that? again we don't know where the meeting is going to take place and may not be in north korea but just meeting with this guy what are the downsides to that? >> well number one, i think you eliminate the downside by making sure the pre-conditions established by the white

seems to be largely an effort to save face to try and present itself as a relevant player in any north korean talks after south korea and the u.s. have been the ones making headlines but this meeting with china also is likely to boost north korea as a leverage in any possible the meeting with the trump having beijing on their side will buy them some wiggle room in terms of having a partner that could for example help soften trade restrictions you know the that's a very good point especially that you make about the charges president when we look at the u.s. president you know he was known for calling the north korean leader the rocket man and today he tweeted that he believes that the north korean leader will do what is right for all of humanity that's quite a it's quite a change in his perception of the north korean leader i mean were do you think that's coming from. that certainly is quite a turn from the kind of language we saw earlier on in terms of presidency and now he really wants to be seen as the president who finally got north korea to give up its nuclear weapons and so we've seen a

leland: meanwhile, north korean neighbor xi jinping, what that means for the north korean situation. ♪ leland: a lot of news this sunday. a knot of news made last night.

and gave face to the north korean. and two american detainees were freed. so this is something north korea wanted. and we have apparently granted it for nothing. and you know, i mean wsh i think to president trump's credit, it may be that north korea is responding to elevated sanction pressure, which president trump put in place. and you know, that would be a good sign, the fact that they have promised to suspend missile and nuclear tests in the next few months is promising. maybe that offers some hope they would indeed be willing to give up the nuclear program to suspend nuclear and missile tests indefinitely. but the way to find that out is to have experienced diplomats test the north koreans, work things out. and offer a presidential visit as the outcome of a successful negotiation rather than giving it away right off the bat. i mean, i'm going to say don, it feels as if you are a president struggling with a russia investigation, struggle with bad news about a porn actress and all of a sudden some guys show up and you say let's change the subject with a s

north korea. it also wants to maintain its influence on the whole korean peninsula, both north korea and south korea and we see this with the economic retaliation that beijing is orchestrating because the south korean government has accepted the installation of the anti-missile system. the defensive system in south korea. t ultimately i think china's strategic interest is for a peaceful denuke larization of the korean peninsula -- denuke larization of the korean -- denuclearization of the korean peninsula. china is enforcing sanctions. although there's a lot of evasion, i think they're doing a lot more than, say, russia in this case. >> thank you so much for joining us and your reaction to all of this. we've also got market rations going on. let's get to the author of "nuclear showdown." he also joins us on the phone. gourde, thanks for joining us. what do you make again of all this? >> i think there are a couple of things at play. first of all, the sanctions are starting to bite kim jong un. he's starting to realize that it's a good time to talk to president trump because things will probably get w

in a directiong of trying to get north koreans and south koreans to start talking again. host: the president talks about north korea and here is an excerpt. >> obama said it was the biggest problem we had. and south korea went there. we put very strong sanctions and lots of other things we have been doing right from the first day i was in office. and after having gone to north and --seeing kim jong-un no, it is positive. we now have to be very nice because, let's see what happens. the south korean top representatives, they walked out the white house to a throng of these characters. big room. and everybody wanted to find out what happened. and just left north korea north korea is tough. they are doing a lot of things. this should have been handled over the last 30 years. not now. they should have handled this. this should have been handled. and everybody will say it but that is ok. we handle things. host: that was the president, also tweeting over the past few days saying "north korea has not conducted a missile test since november 28, 2017 and has promised not to do so thr

it's going to be a tough sell for north korean media after telling north koreans for more than a yearump, calling him senile and old lunatic and now to say their leading will be meeting with the president trump of the united states. i've been to pyongyang many times and asked if they wanted a meeting and their answer was always no. we know in north korea, if the government tells people to think something, they will or say they will. >> what is the calculus from kim jong-un's perspective. you've been to north korea many times. was my message that got all this in motion? >> yeah. it was the message to president trump and apparently a personal appeal. obviously the north koreans have been studying president trump trying to figure out a way to reach out to this u.s. president. the missaile lawn munch got his attention but in the wrong way. you're seeing kim jong-un taking a very different approach trying to find ways to relate with the president of the united states and he's been able to pull off something that the previous two leaders couldn't which is an agreement for a sit down meeting

leader. >> meeting north korean leader kim jong un, he is committed, said that north korea, any nuclear test. he expressed his eagerness to meet donald trump as soon as possible.

certainly not north korean soil. maybe south korean soil if they were to play a broker in this or third location. we do not know any of this because we don't know if the president will accept his invitation. we are told tonight's announcement is going to be very, very big, sandra. keep it here. we will have it for you very shortly. >> sandra: to remind everybody how unexpected this was, very unusual, a lot of things happening tonight. but one was that the president himself walked into that briefing room and said this announcement would be coming. john, can you give us an idea, looking back at the things that this president has said about his willingness to potentially meet with the north korean leader? >> well, he has said on several occasions that he would be willing to meet with kim jong un but he would only meet with him as i said before if the conditions were right and the conditions would be that any talk between the two leaders would be about the denuclearization of the north korean peninsula. president trump ha

the south korean military blasts music across the border to let north koreans know what they're missingter: south korean pop culture is a big export here in asia, and is even making inroads in the west. perhaps this rings a bell ♪ oppa gangnam style. >> reporter: there's also k- drama, blockbuster south korean programs. instead, there's a diet of government propaganda and stalinist entertainment. you may remember these robotic cheerleaders at the winter olympics. but some manage to get their hands on black market south korean soap operas. for kim hakmin, a north korean defector turned business man, they were proof the regime was lying to him. his favorite was this one, "lovers in paris." >> reporter: hoping other north koreans will see the light, this aid group puts flash drives i'm needed rice and floats them towards the north. this frozen conflict... ♪ ♪ ...is being fought with a very unusual arsenal. ♪ ♪ holly williams, cbs news, seoul. >> glor: that is the cbs evening news tonight. i'm jeff glor. the news continues now with elaine quijano on cbsn, and we leave you with the selfie of