Post and victor has been a valuable valuable resource. Both obviously the past two years but even before that, i was bugging victor and others in the program quite often, maybe even times when i necessarily didnt want to for traffic analysis and to help me walk through what is happening in the one that i need to think, the koreans are for that and congratulate you for successful tenures. I am a reporter for the Washington Post and a cover the white house and ive been doing that for about seven or eight years for the obama ministration and other past two and half are President Trump. It is been quite an experience shifting between the two. But one thing i focus on the entire time is agent policy. It is so important starting with president obama pivot to asia. It is my great honor to be hosting this panel and i wanted to say we will be discussing, theres three panels, will be discussing the alliance. But let me introduce the panel and then will have a healthy discussion about where we are its been assist and train physicians week because he is headed up back for the g20 and then for an important summit and wasabi in a quite a bit about that. Ill be on the trip along with several of my colleagues and i leave tomorrow. So very much looking forward to that. Quickly we have victor, he hardly needs an introduction. He founded the korea in 2009, he served after Asian Affairs and the National Security council in the bush ministration. From 2004 to 2007 and victor was very involved with other negotiations with north korea that appreciated where we are today he is an author of five books, including the possible states, north korea past and future and youll see him quite a bit on abc and msnbc as an analyst. We have right next to victor ambassador, thank you for joining. He probably needs also very little introduction, he is a Senior Advisor at the u. S. Institute of peace. Before that he served 33 years as a diplomat and for two years you will know, from 2016 to 2018 was a special envoy to north korea and he is a key player in reestablishing communication and traveling to north korea to help cure the release auto war auto. Next to him we have doctor, he she is a professor at the university of department of international studies, conducted Extensive Research on the north uk lights. Previously served as a director of security and diplomacy center. An independent think tank and he spent time prior to that as a visiting fulbright scholar at george mason university, not far where i grew up in northern virginia. Thank you doctor kim. We have not, another diplomat, joy, took over as the director of the cree desk at the state department. Assumed after serving as a minister counselor for Academic Affairs at the u. S. Ability and soul. We are very happy to have her with us and before that she served in china around the world and also close my heart was a former newspaper writer and she knows all my tricks and shes on the record today. This the big crowd and being broadcast. Finally we have doctor, Senior Research fellow at the institute in korea. They served as the president of the Korean Nuclear policy society, doctor lee served as a director general repulsive cleaning and the minister of Foreign Affairs from 201122013 and is author of numerous papers and analyses including a summary of the u. S. Tp or case, and annoyed. They can from our panels. We are going to jump in to a dialogue then having opening presentations. As a journalist i mentioned, we are interested in what is happening. No better time to have this panel the president s trip, i went to get right at it. I think there is a lot of interest now after what was a dark. Inner diplomacy inner dialogue after the hanoi summit, which is that about what will happen and how to get the cost back on track. Now weve seen the path of the president in the ministration which is a direct leader to leader engagement and using the exchange of love letters that President Trump i called them. But first kim jongun to a letter to the president in the news all around his birthday and then you saw a reciprocal letter being reported over the weekend with kim jongun received from President Trump, the white house has confirmed the letter was sent in the letter contained according to the Fake News Agency excellent content. They said the chairman is considering. That raised a lot of intriguing possibilities and anothers been a lot of discussion about what the make of the summit between them coming up. But maybe i should start with victor and will go down the line about what we think about a third summit that we see now the exchange has renewed the idea that President Trump we dont know what was in the letter but do we see a third summit and what does that mean and what would it take for us to get that way. Thank you for the question. David properly introduced himself. Because what he is known for in the korea policy expert community, he is only journalist that we know that has asked the question to it kim jongun and got an answer. [laughter] i joke now in my tombstone that he shouted a question hes a dictator. And then for a while to tell about it. I wrote a story about that moment i was in the press and hanoi and id been in singapore for the first summit and i was on the pool, the small group of 13 reporters allowed in the photo up. That pool was in television and radio and i was very disappointed not to be in the pool for the singapore summit and i had to remain in the hotel and helpers and briefings and went to ki kim jonguns hotel. Anna waited on the streets for the shopping quarter and the hot sun to get a glimpse of the motorcade and the ready bar card. I wrote why we wait on the Street Corner with her kids playing with her kids on the ipad to see this ruthless dictator. Thats the closest i came to see him and it was very real. As we went as a group they said you need to try to sell something to him. In President Trump engage him so much after the photo up reporters immediately shouted to President Trump, and he answered and i position myself closer to kim and was keeping an eye and him to try to make eye contact and then when i heard try stop talking i shouted to kim and said to feel good about adil . And he looked at me and as he wrote the piece this was a universal time if you feel good you feel good. Time closed down and in the moment and then i saw, if you look at the replay, trumps interpreter leans over, and trumps interpreter leans over and interprets a question or indicates its for him and then he responds. And then the moment at the end of the piece i didnt realize that no one never ever done that or got a response. But we are quickly ushered out because they didnt want to do is have a chance. And thats when i saw on twitter and the semi big news. What he said, i feel hopeful but is not in it. So at the time we were assuming there would be a review that led to that. But in reality he is not there yet. They may be hopeful and i use the quote at the end of the book of kim jongun the hopeful dealing we will see. That was the experience but i would love to see if mccauley may have another chance because the scene certainly that another summit doesnt seem likely to be close to that. The president thanks differently and were coming up on a campaign to maybe good on the line for. I feel like. I want to echo what he said in the begin. There is something in the air. After the hanoi summit there was no dialogue taking place in all the efforts that theyre working on to make contact or going into a black hole and also in this particular letter comes from trimming kim to trump which he then responded to and then, xi jinping goes to pin young and whenever you see highlevel weather and then the meaning, that is like the set up for third meeting. I have no inside information on this, but those pieces are pieces that we generally see before another meeting. In addition to that, based on my experience as a staffer, it is quite unusual for President Trump to be spending two nights in korea. Also the g20 summit. Usually when we do these, its in aro and in japan in early in the morning there is a trip to korea and you do the troops or whatever and move on. This is a lot of time in korea. There is no doubt that the president will go. He has never been a and the last time he went he could not go in general brooks is there at the time and there was a lot, was really bad weather and really bad fog so he cannot make the trip but every u. S. President that could say anything but korea has to visit the tmz to see the division and how armed it is. So im pretty certain hes going to do that and the question is, is he going to make a big statement, he do it himself, will he do it with him . This president like surprises click. It looks like theres an t to reset after hanoi. Maybe not a third summit immediately but at least a reset that will allow working level to reengage. The problem is, as long as both sides dont put or dont empower working level to make agreements we will fall into the same trap that we fill in hanoi which is the working level meetings that is left of the two leaders and they cannot make you do. I feel a great now were headed down the road and what the president did on iran in terms of pulling back at the very last minute with regard to retaliatory military strike only reinforces the view and north korea they have to talk to the leader. And so that means that the working level are not going to be able to make an agreement that they set up a successful summit. [crowd boos] what do you think would put us on a path to a summit that makes more sense than a rush meeting certainly this trip and what kind of timeframe would be more sensible . I think fundamentally its relationship between donald trump and kim jongun and its a mixture of both admiration for each other but the information said is quite symmetric. Kim jongun knows everything there is to know about donald trump. He knows exactly how the u. S. Government operates, his key staffers, donald trump does not know anything about what is going on, there is a mismatch. So i think in my experience, north korea is nothing like you remember back in government. November of 2016 i was talking with north korea and china set up a meeting for my then boss to go to china and they said we really dont want him we think is on fire. [laughter] and of course they were completely right he did get fired a few months later. In the underlying rationale is of course we all know historically true that north korea has been wanting something another difference is the u. S. Side of donald trump want something. I have no doubt that will be a third summit, probably sooner rather than later. And what will make it a success has to be worked on at a working level so there are no surprises. I am optimistic if you look at whats on the table in hanoi there was quite a bit on the table. From north korea inside, giving up they agreed essentially to open the offices and so, a key issue like definition of denuclearization, how much denuclearization, how much sanctions were left out but i do think intervention next level of video relatively quickly and in that sense is in both her interest to have a summit to a place where is sustainable at least for a while in Donald Trumps main goal is to win the 2020 november election and to get through that. Fortunately for kim jongun he doesnt phase in the elections. So i think youre looking at the shortterm, a medium compare. Can you give us a sense of how the blue house, south korean government has been trying to work with both sides. To try to reengage in. We know theres been very little communication after hanoi between washington of pyongyang and what is the view all about moving forward with the leader to leader dialogue and how important it is. The south korean government has no choice but to take part. [laughter] after four months of animosity and something is going on and looks like something is going on. No at to me is not a change of building up because something happened last may 26. But then it happened again. I was thinking of the situation right now and north korea perspective, theyre still angry. The devastated. It seems like they recruit themselves minority too, in this discussion this is not return to giveaway this is the turn that you will protect or south korea has tried to persuade america. Thank you. To me there is a second half. If they decided to, to negotiate table dont want to repeat what they had. And regarding the love letters excellent letter, this is what i heard from another source, during the eight months and six month of double cluster, there were five unknown this is a special communication method. But i dont think there is a Game Changing proposal. Even though they think its interesting, they tried to maintain this on the table. Now in these kind of letters and some kind of deal. I want to skip briefly but only because you can understand hes in a sensitive position. And limitations on what you can say about north korea. We will get right back to her about the alliance. What do we think about these letters . Usually think, there traditionally in the pomona quarters and flowery language. We know President Trump read one letter last summer that he read from kim jongun was very flowery. It didnt say holland, we doubt theres a lot of details and information necessarily. But i want to see if doctor lee has thoughts about what we think about the could be encompassed with these letters between the leaders in the President Trump brings reporters into the oval office and have staff rings around him and brings about which was on the Time Magazine interview last week. Which i think the reported attempted to take a voter, i dont know if you saw that in the transcript. The president got so upset he said i dont if you can read it but you could take a picture of her. And at one point he was put in prison if he did and violated the rule. So the letter was very important to the president and he seems to want them to get out but not violate kim jongun confidence i guess. But if you could toast a little bit more about what do you think is trying to be accomplished other than just praise. I would say, this is a good spot because both sides will continue the mortal bottle. And this is one thing, at the same time, since the hanoi summit many people are concerned whether this might be public class. Nice to have some momentum. So i think that is really good spot. Perhaps the visible that perhaps may have a better deal. [inaudible] eventually what step must retake. And whether or not the denuclearization. I want to come back in a minute of what we can incur about some of the changes that have been reported about north korea and President Trump contradicting john bolton at times on north korea and what that tells us about where this might be headed. First, since were on the presence of the strip, i noticed tricky to talk or not talk about direct dealings with north korea. Can you set the stage a little bit about the strip in terms of the relationship between President Trump. I think weve seen a lot of work by Prime Minister abe for the whole two half years in the state visit in on the host of the big g20 summit, he is in the spotlight and has continued his diplomacy with President Trump to flatter him and work his relationship and try to say hes his best in asia. And certainly has a different view of a how they should proceed the dialogue and north korea. Im wondering if you can give us a sense of what the trip details for president moon and President Trumps relationship and get a little bit beyond talking about north korea and other things are going to talk about and maybe a little bit of why youll be spending for the money and on the agenda. Its only one night. There is no question that the priority is a negotiated denuclearization of north korea. There is no question that this is the most important issue of the United States. And this will be the number one topic will president has a meeting. What we should also remember is what they will do and what they will commit to his enduring, strong bilateral relationship alliance. The alliance is more than just a pure key issue, its about showing the world that these two countries, two government can do extremely things, whatever they want. And north korea is an example in the fact that were working together to engage with korea and beyond that weve also shown we can work on Economic Issues together, we negotiated changes with trade agreements that were difficult but we managed to come up with an amendment that are beneficial to both countries. And we made a deep commitment to Work Together in the pacific region. And under President Trump the specifics strategy. Between the two efforts and based on the fact of a goblet assistance talking to asia based on monument a free and open region based on the notion that they want to allow countries and enable countries to preserve their sovereignty to develop in ways that they want to and not because they are being forced into doing so. I guess what im trying to emphasize, that this relationship is about the tpr k but please dont forget that this relationship is much more and we should make a commitment to improve that alliance in so many ways across the board and they also mentioned that we cooperate on health, sainted technology and energy. So i fully accept this commitment for alliance for these kinds will be party much of the constitution. I dont think resident moon please call. The president is the president. He plays a lot of interpersonal relationships whether its with her alleys or other leaders and even xi jinping. And on a trip like this is fairly quick. There is not a lot of time and i dont know if theres any Relationship Building yonder bilateral meeting even the one on one that you build into Something Like this even if you fully cannot tell us what it is. Do they have effort to do that with president moon . The trip is not fully set in terms. [