up their nuclear weapons, which al. >> victor cha is a very smart man and i consult with him a lot. don't know any north korean expert that thinks kim jong-un is willing to give up their nuclear weapons. so if that's the case, we should be able to find out through testing diplomacy here, and we're going to need to continue a campaign of maximum pressure. i believe we have just begun to scratch the surface in terms of the pressure we can apply. not only on north korea, but chinese banks. i don't think it would be a bad idea for treasury and justice to send a letter to certain chinese banks to see whether there was any nefarious activity going on. i think there's a lot more that we can do to impose pressure. so while i'm happy to let the administration test diplomacy, let's be clear eyed about who we're dealing with when we sit down at that table. >> are you worried that the president seems to be praising kim too much and too eager for the summit? >> no. listen, i look at the broader team, right? i think the president has been criticized at times for being too bellicose in his languag

joining us to talk about why the on again/off again summit may be back on is victor cha from the national security council, was in line to be president trump's first pick to be ambassador to south korea. mr. cha, welcome to "meet the press." >> thanks. >> let me ask you this, why is there uncertainty around this summit, and are we almost too focused on if it's going to happen and not focused enough on the substance? >> so the uncertainty, chuck, is largely because we're dealing with north korea. andrea and i went to north korea ten years ago, and we had the same problem. we had no information before we went. we had no itinerary. you can imagine when you're sending the president 10,000 miles to singapore, there's got to be a lot negotiated. that's why it's been on again/off again. in terms of the substance, we're all focused on the roller coaster. in terms of the substance, the key issue is are they going to give up their nuclear weapons? i think, unfortunately, the answer is no. do they want a peace treaty, the north koreans? absolutely. they want a peace treaty because it validates them,

to victor cha and sue mi terry, thank you very much. >>> coming up, it's primary night.o to the big board. steve kornacki is standing by with returns from texas, georgia, kentucky, arkansas, when we continue. i'm alex trebek, here to tell you about the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three p's. what are the three p's? the three p's of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54. alex, what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65 and take medications. what's my price? also $9.95 a month. i just turned 80. what's my price? $9.95 a month for you too. if you're age 50 to 85, call now about the #1 most popular whole life insurance plan, available through the colonial penn program. it has an affordable rate starting at $9.95 a month.ea your acceptance is guaranteed. and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock, so your rate can never go up for any reason. so call

now, for more, we welcome back one of the foremost experts on the korean peninsula, victor cha, chair for the strategic and international studies and a former national security council director for asia fares. he also happens to be the uh thoer of "the impossible state, new york past and future." victor, this is not an unserious piece of reporting. this actually happened. can it be that their view is so transactional as to say, removing our nuclear weapons is a nonstarter, but we love us some wendy's over here and maybe we can talk about that. >> well, you know, this report is very interesting. this wouldn't be the first time that the north koreans have raised issues like this. i remember a few years ago they talked about bringing fried chicken franchises and coca-cola to north korea. as a way to show their interest in reform and opening. but as you said and as the cia report said, that really doesn't give us any window on their intentions to denuclearize to give up all of their nuclear weapons and to stop their ballistic missile program. >> as a veteran of the region, can you believe

to victor cha and sue mi terry, thank you very much. >>> coming up, it's primary night.o to the big board. steve kornacki is standing by with returns from texas, georgia, kentucky, arkansas, when we continue. millions of you are online right now, searching one topic. that will generate over 600 million results. and if you've been diagnosed with cancer, searching for answers like where to treat, can feel even more overwhelming. so start your search with a specialist at cancer treatment centers of america. start with teams of cancer treatment experts under one roof. start where specialists use advanced genomic testing to guide precision cancer treatment... ...that may lead to targeted therapies and more treatment options. start where there's a commitment to analyzing the latest research and conducting clinical trials-to help each patient get the personalized cancer care they deserve. start at one of the cancer treatment centers of america hospitals near you. the evolution of cancer care is here. learn more at cancercenter.com/experts >>> so you voted. 2018 is every bit as

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victor cha. always good to see you. want to get your reaction to the scene we saw at 3:00 a.m., just a few hours ago, the president of the united states with the three men who had been detained, held after they were sentenced to hard labor over the last couple of years. american citizens returning home. good news, obviously, that they're home. what's the significance in the larger picture as the president tries to strike a deal with north korea? >> it's great news for the families, i have met with some of the family members, they were living in quiet agony over the past years. it's difficult for the president, he's trying to congratulate the north korean leader. we shouldn't be giving the north korean leader any humanitarian awards, he murdered a university of virginia college student, otto warmbier and there are hundreds of thousands of north koreans in prison camps today, simply because they want to live in a more free and open society. the state department still has a travel ban on americans going to north korea. it'

. >>> sean, let me turn to you first, victor cha, with chuck todd were talking about. >> who's the obstacle, is it china, john bolting? es are they trying to slow thing down a bit? to engage in meetings, he's the key person organizing -- but not the policy substance. >> i don't think they're engaging right now in real policy deliverables that we should expect to come out of the singapore. the focus is on logistics. >> since this summit was sheffield, temporarily, it seems, has much work been done? there's a, is the united states and north korea on the same page about what it is? >> yeah, that's the big question right now, what is that going to mean, what will it look like? what will the summit produce? in the united states there's still a lot of skepticism that north korea will come to the table with an offer. >>> another point about this whiplash that we're seeing, keep in mind we're talking about two of the most unpredictable world leaders when we talk about kim jong-un and president trump. it shouldn't be surprising that we're seeing this. i would expect more of this as we move closer an

the work denuclearization means different things to the north koreans, we heard victor cha, and he says he does not believe they will ever give up a nuclear weapon. that seems like that's what we're asking them to do. we want them to give up mare missiles, but we can do this. we have the power to do this. the question is whether the president is willing to do the elementsh to get them to do something -- >> it will be interesting. >> let and -- take a listen to this. >> i know will be very prepared. kim jong-un knows hi program inside and out. i i don't know that the president has done the kind of homework that would allow him to do this. the high watermark is they tay at the levels of principles, allow each side to cower, and then seriously begin a process that makes the peninsula less dangerous. >> so in essence, he's casting doubts on president trump's preparedness going into the summit. what do you think it would take for the president to be fully prepared. >> thankfully we don't have to rely on the president, i have to agree there's absolutely nothing we have seen from this presiden

i'll talk to the former director for asian affairs at the national security council, victor cha.lus, weapons of mass distraction. president trump accuses democrats of campaign espionage. >> a lot of people are saying they have spies in my campaign. >> but offers no proof. >> i hope

. >> victor cha who was going to be the head said it creates dangers on the other side. meet those high expectations, then you fall off a precipice back to potential conflict. >> right. that's been the pattern of diplomacy for decades. when something fails, all that's left is military options, which is the danger of building expectations before you have solid, secure outcomes of a meeting such as this. >> look where we are, though. to be fair, we're in a better place than we were two or three months ago. there were open threats going back and forth. there was at least the possibility of potential conflict between these two countries. do you think the policy has at least yielded fruits to get them to the table? >> i think the president deserves some credit for getting us to the point where we are now. it's clear the north koreans would like three things. they would like a reduction in economic pressure and an economic lifeline. they would like to be welcomed back into the community of nations, and they would like to reduce the risk of conflict. their guess is by entering

i'll talk to the former director for asian affairs at the national security council, victor cha.nt trump accuse democrats

victor cha, he had been a candidate to be ambassador to south korea at one point. and cara lee with me also. of course an nbc news national political reporter. always good to have you. victor, let me start with you. this cancellation coming just two days after president trump meets with south korea's president. do we think at this point that south korea had any idea that president trump was going to cancel this thing? >> my guess is that they didn't. the decision to meet with the north korean leader by president as you know happened when the south korean national security adviser was in washington, d.c. and i think they were surprised by president trump agreeing to meet. and i think that they were equally surprised by his decision to cancel. i mean one thing that is clear is that there is only one person that is making policy on north korea and that is the president himself. >> south korea's president moon jae-in put out a statement a short time ago and i will read it in part here. this is just a snippet from that statement. denuclearization and the lasting peace on

next to her is victor cha who was almost the ambassador to south korea. [laughing] and is at georgetown, wonderful university, and also csis. sue me terror you also works for the obama administration on aging issues -- sue mi terry and is a fellow and korea chair. lastly, mike green worked at the george w. bush administration and is the senior vice president for asia, csis japan chair and also works at georgetown. so it only want to comment about donald trump, which is what i do as my day job come to sort of set the tone for this conversation. and that is i actually was on duty and not that donald trump accepted kim jong-un's invitation to meet, delivered by south koreans. i think it's worth remember you probably already at the time but it's worth remembering exactly how this went down because it was not like any other white house. these two government representatives came from south korea to brief the national security adviser about that meeting with north korean officials. and begin what people assume would be a deliberative process leading towards a de

i'll talk to the former director for asian affairs at the national security council, victor cha. plus, weapons of mass distraction. president trump accuse democrats of campaign espionage. but offers no proof. >> i hope it's not so, because if it is there's never been anything like it in the history of our country. >> while rudy giuliani says truth is relative and that robert mueller's team may have a different version of the truth than we do. my guests this morning, senator jeff flake of arizona who attacked the president and also congress for failing to respond to president trump. >>> and, patriot games. nfl owners vote to find teams who's players kneel during the national anthem. who gets to define how to be patriotic. joining me for inside analysis are nbc news chief correspondent andrea mitchell. eugene robinson, amy walter, and matthew continetti editor and chief of the free beacon. welcome to sunday, it's meet the press. >> from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning and a happy

victor cha, he's an nbc news and msnbc korean affairs analyst.ou think about the summit being postponed or canceled? >> i think it was a problem that donald trump created for himself. he walked into this thing very quickly, raised expectations along the way. when we all knew any way that he dealt with north korea this was not going to be easy and there was going to be very little certainty of anything if he wasd headed on a plane to singapore. so that made it very difficult for him to stick with this plan. and we are where we are now. >> richard haass, you saw mike pompeo reading that letter to the north koreans. what's the impact of that, not only on the north koreans, but also on our allies? and also again, what's the impact of our allies once again being blind-sided by a white house action? >> part of it is the tactical issue you just got at. the idea that the south korean president was left twisting in the wind and surprised by this is quite stunning, given how much they had days before talked about the near-certainty of a summit. but more br

victor cha recently said that if a trump kim summit does not go well, the only thing behind is a clip. to avoid that outcome. at all costs. we need to be ready with additional measures to further increase economic pressure on the kim regime. to tighten the pressure even more. on the kim regime. to cut off their access to the rest of the world's economy even more if they are unwilling to sit and to negotiate a resolution of this issue. china, the primary enabler of north korea, may decide to reduce cooperation with us in enforcing sanctions which would ease the pressure on north korea, but to do so would set back our efforts to revolve the crisis. this morning, i have presented a road map for deescalating the north korean threat. for decade, my work has focused on safeguarding our planet from catastrophic nuclear war. as albert einstein once said, peace cannot be kept by force. it can only be achieved by understanding. we have an obligation to american families to service members and the to our allies. to say unequivocally that we did everything in our power to address north korea's da

. >> i think they have done -- it didn't used to be this difficult for them as victor cha pointed out, it's gotten tighter and tighter, the noose, as they added more investigators and more processes, so it's very recently that they really resorted to these efforts. we saw iran do this a lot, by the way, when the embargo was on fi full tilt. they were also turning off their ais signals at sea so they could do the same thing. >> great piece. >> thank you. >>> in a rare interview, the nike founder addresses the alleged misconduct at the company that he started. we will hear from him. >>> ford holding its annual meeting at the same time that it is halting production on its best-selling model, the ford f-150. those stories and much more coming up on "power lunch. it's great to finally meet you. your parents have been talking about you for years. they're all about me saving for a house, or starting a college fund for my son. actually, i want to know what you're thinking. knowing that the most important goals are yours, is how edward jones makes sense of investing. i am an independent financ