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  • NARRATOR: On March 26, 2018 a passenger train leaves Pyongyang, North Korea.

  • 21 bullet proof cars painted an olive drab lumber across the countryside,

  • then over the Chinese border.

  • Rumors begin throughout the international community.

  • This is the official train of the North Korea leadership.

  • Also used by Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il,

  • the grandfather and father of current leader, Kim Jong-Un.

  • No one outside of the notoriously secretive nation knows who is aboard.

  • Some speculate it is Kim Yo-Jong, Un's younger sister and most trusted advisor.

  • It is not until the train reaches its final destination, Beijing,

  • that it's revealed Kim Jong-Un, the 34-year-old dictator himself,

  • is the passenger.

  • In the months preceding this meeting...

  • What follows in Beijing...

  • And in the months to come...

  • Are the preliminary steps to what may be the most

  • important diplomatic event of our young century.

  • A path to peace on the Korean peninsula and a way to bring the North Koreans

  • into the international fold after 70 years of isolation.

  • But the path to peace will be one of twists and turns as allies and the US

  • jockey for position to protect their interests and maintain security.

  • By the time President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-Un meet face to face

  • in Singapore, it is still unclear what each party wants or will be willing to do.

  • This is the Great Game.

  • ♪ ♪

  • North Korea remains an enigma.

  • -Good Morning, how are you, Mr. Vice President?

  • Very nice to see you.

  • NARRATOR: And only those who have sat across the table with

  • North Korean negotiators understand the challenges.

  • RICHARDSON: I do believe that they're very tough, they're very well prepared.

  • They read everything, especially media.

  • What makes them so tough, it's not just their culture,

  • but the fact that they've been isolated.

  • They've been sanctioned.

  • They hardly any of them, the citizens, leave North Korea.

  • They have television that's programmed every evening,

  • for three hours the government tells you what you're going to see.

  • And inevitably, they hate the United States.

  • HILL: At the end of the day, diplomacy is really trying

  • to get the other side to do something they don't really want to do.

  • in dealing with another country, make it clear that you make the hard choices

  • today and I'm not promising you the end of hard choices,

  • but I'm promising you that in the future you won't have to make them alone.

  • ALBRIGHT: Mostly, I don't see it as a gift.

  • You usually use diplomacy more with your adversaries than with your friends.

  • And so it is this matter of being prepared and putting yourself into the other

  • country's shoes and figuring out what you do in order to solve the problem,

  • and it's not a gift.

  • It is how you talk to those you disagree with.

  • NARRATOR: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK,

  • is anything but democratic.

  • From the ashes of World War II,

  • loomed the first post-war spread of Soviet communism.

  • In August 1945, the Korean peninsula and her people were

  • effectively divided at the 38th parallel.

  • An arbitrary divide.

  • Using a National Geographic map, the future US Secretary of state,

  • Dean Rusk and fellow army staffer Col. Charles "Tic" Bonesteel

  • knew the decision of the 38th parallel made no economic or

  • geographic sense, but with the cold war about to cast a long shadow,

  • the United States wanted Seoul and the democratic leaning south, under their alliance.

  • Kim Il-Sung, the young charismatic rebel famous for his insurrection against the

  • brutal decades old Japanese occupation,

  • vied for power and shaped this new republic in

  • the Stalinist fashion adopting a totalitarian reign of terror.

  • Kim solidified his place in the soviet backed north, then sought to unify the peninsula

  • by invading the south and starting the Korean conflict on June 25th, 1950.

  • Reporter (over TV): In an era of renewed optimism.

  • NARRATOR: Three years later a cease-fire was reached.

  • North Korea, a nation established by warfare,

  • will be perpetuated by self-imposed isolation, bloodshed,

  • and humanitarian horrors.

  • TERRY: It's the most unique country in the world.

  • What other country in the world is Confucian, communist, hereditary, dynasty,

  • there's no country like this.

  • While it also commits human rights violations.

  • United Nations Commission of Inquiries said,

  • "there's no other parallel in contemporary history, except Nazi, Germany"

  • and this is North Korea.

  • I don't think there is another country that is more isolated than North Korea,

  • so truly a unique place.

  • NARRATOR: And they have been challenging American policy, for nearly 70 years.

  • HILL: I think any political question has to start with a map.

  • And if you look at a map of Northeast Asia, it's a pretty compact area.

  • You're seeing Russian far east interest right there.

  • You're seeing Japan right there.

  • China, enormous interest right there, South Korea.

  • And then, in the middle of this,

  • you have this funny little thing called North Korea.

  • How does it affect the countries around it and I would say,

  • it affects them all big time.

  • TERRY: North Korea has figured out how to work the United States.

  • There is usually a provocation of some sort, whether it is a missile test or a nuke test.

  • Then there is international condemnation that follows,

  • and then they sort of up the ante, like a poker game.

  • "Oh yeah? Here's more!"

  • Then, sort of a collective "Oh no!"

  • And then they step back and say, "OK. Here is what we can do."

  • They have some sort of charm offensive, peace offensive.

  • Then we meet with them, we negotiate, we give them aids, some rewards,

  • some time passes, then back to provocation.

  • It's a provoke and get paid cycle.

  • NARRATOR: For generations, the North Korean people have been controlled

  • by a police state that has perfected propaganda to an art.

  • Their belief in the Kim family dynasty,

  • is absolute devotion.

  • Information is tightly controlled by the Korean central news agency,

  • the KCNA, established in 1946.

  • KRISTOF: There've obviously been many other deeply repressive

  • Communist dictators, Stalin, Mao.

  • They didn't have the technology that the Kim family had.

  • They didn't have the degree of social control, so they didn't have speakers on every,

  • in every village, speakers in the wall of every home to control people.

  • They didn't have television in every home.

  • They didn't even have these portraits of the leaders

  • it's kind of a religious cult.

  • RICHARDSON: It's the deity,

  • it's the leaders, the grandfather, the father, and now Kim Jong-Un,

  • that are not just political figures, they're god like religious figures.

  • And what they say determines how North Koreans act.

  • GAUSE: Kim Jong-Un only had a very short amount of time to

  • build his legitimacy within the regime.

  • Kim Jong-Il by comparison had 30 years to create his legitimacy.

  • Kim Jong-Un had none of this, but a lot of things, very interesting things began to

  • happen when Kim Jong-Un came to power.

  • The first thing that happened is they had the missile test,

  • which was a failure.

  • But what does North Korea do?

  • They admit it was a failure, unprecedented.

  • Why did they do that?

  • It gave people pause to think that maybe this was something different.

  • Kim Jong-Un laid down the Rosetta Stone of where he wanted to take this regime.

  • People would no longer have to tighten their belts,

  • this was an important statement by Kim Jong-Un.

  • There was no mention whatsoever of the nuclear program in that speech because

  • that's not where Kim Jong-Un wanted his legacy.

  • That was Kim Jong-Il's legacy was the nuclear program.

  • His legacy was to create the strong and prosperous nation.

  • HILL: He then created a kind of chaotic situation within the worker's party,

  • the North Korean Workers' Party and actually had his uncle Jang Song-Thaek

  • perp-walked out of a party meeting and killed the next day.

  • So, Kim Jong-Un began a series of executions of senior North Korean figures

  • such that it was hard to find a common denominator of why these people had been executed.

  • But certainly, one can speculate that he didn't feel

  • they were sufficiently loyal to him.

  • NARRATOR: He purges over 400 senior military and ministry leaders publicly.

  • And allegedly has his older half-brother murdered in a Malaysian airport,

  • poisoned by unwitting assassins.

  • But he needs something else to secure the Kim dynasty, nuclear weapons that could

  • pose a real and present danger to America and her Asian allies.

  • GAUSE: This would be the launching of the the Kim Jong-Un era.

  • He had to show legitimacy.

  • And if he couldn't show legitimacy on the economic realm,

  • he had to show legitimacy in the security realm.

  • And so he began to move very quickly towards developing the nuclear program so that he

  • would have something to hang his hat on.

  • So, it will give him a much stronger position in which

  • to negotiate with the United States.

  • NARRATOR: Kim Jong-Il moved the nuclear program forward in spite of

  • international outcry and on again off again treaties.

  • Now it is his son who may finish the job,

  • having a strong hand to negotiate a way for his

  • impoverished nation to have an economic revival.

  • ALBRIGHT: I think that he does have a good hand to play.

  • I mean, he has in fact, from his perspective, developed a nuclear potential and missiles

  • to do the delivery on it, and he's managed to scare

  • the whole region into doing something.

  • NARRATOR: Through 2016 to mid-September, 2017, Kim Jong-Un

  • conducts three nuclear tests, including a hydrogen bomb,

  • and 30 short and long-range missile launches;

  • including Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.

  • Kim claims that they have nuclear warheads

  • small enough to fit on each ICBM.

  • PRESIDENT TRUMP: In 70 years, in times of war and peace...

  • NARRATOR: In September 2017 president Donald Trump

  • addresses the UN General Assembly.

  • PRESIDENT TRUMP: No one has shown more contempt for other nations,

  • and for the well-being of their people than the depraved regime in North Korea.

  • NARRATOR: He delivers a fiery speech attacking Kim Jong-Un

  • and threatening the destruction of his country.

  • PRESIDENT TRUMP: Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself, and for his regime...

  • NARRATOR: Trump's rhetoric feeds directly into the north's propaganda machine,

  • that America wants to annihilate North Korea.

  • TERRY: I think that was definitely off script, I can't impossibly imagine

  • the administration officials like Mattis or Secretary Tillerson,

  • advocating totally destroying North Korea,

  • I just can't possibly fathom that,

  • so I think that was President Trump speaking.

  • KRISTOF: I think North Korean officials have played a weak hand just brilliantly.

  • While I think the US approach has to some degree backfired.

  • Essentially the US was trying to intimidate North Korea

  • with some of this rhetoric about fire and fury, about complete destruction.

  • And I think what we actually accomplished was that we terrified South Korea into

  • engaging in diplomacy with North Korea.

  • ALBRIGHT: I think that it's very hard to really assess what effect President Trump's

  • language had on Kim Jong-Un.

  • I don't know whether it scared the Japanese, too.

  • NARRATOR: The United Nations Security Council votes for maximum pressure through

  • economic sanctions against the north.

  • HALEY: We have kicked the can down the road long enough.

  • There is no more road left.

  • NARRATOR: A war of words between Pyongyang and President Trump begins.

  • PRESIDENT TRUMP: North Korea bess not make any more threats to the United States.

  • NARRATOR: Kim refers to Trump as a "mentally deranged dotard."

  • Trump insists his red button is bigger than Kim's.

  • Still the DPRK tests another ICBM, this one experts agree,

  • has a range that could hit the continental United States.

  • The US Talked openly about a "bloody nose"

  • military strike that would cripple nuclear testing sites.

  • Only a handful of experts believed this was a viable solution.

  • KRISTOF: Diplomacy is a hugely inefficient toolbox.

  • It doesn't work very well.

  • But in cases like North Korea, it's all we have to resolve this crisis.

  • Ever since 1969, when North Korea shot down a US aircraft

  • and killed a bunch of Americans,

  • the US has looked for ways to shape North Korean behavior.

  • So repeatedly you have very smart officials who, when they're out of power,

  • they talk about military options.

  • And then once in power, and they look at the predictions of perhaps a million-people

  • dying on the very first day of a war with North Korea, then they think well,

  • okay maybe this isn't the best option.

  • And they look at what's left.

  • And what's left is diplomacy.

  • NARRATOR: Adding to the growing anxiety on the peninsula,

  • south Korea was preparing the 2018 Olympic games.

  • And there was precedent to feel insecure; thirty years earlier in 1988,

  • South Korea's first Olympics were being planned.

  • The supreme leader, Kim Il-Sung set out to create a chaotic

  • atmosphere to keep people away from the games.

  • JENNINGS (over TV): Investigators now believe that a bomb,

  • possibly planted by 2 passengers may have caused Sunday's crash

  • of a Korean Airliner.

  • TERRY: They downed a civilian airliner, killed 115 people on board,

  • it was a major terror attack.

  • That was the reason why the United States put North Korea

  • on the states sponsor of terror list,

  • and it also shows you just the brutality and just the insanity because they

  • downed a civilian airliner killing 115 people on board just to disrupt

  • the Olympics that was going to be held in South Korea.

  • NARRATOR: The DPRK was banned from competition.

  • But the games went on, a huge coming out party,

  • a turning point for Seoul as it pulled further away from the north politically,

  • economically and culturally.

  • It only fueled the rivalry between the two Koreas.

  • Then, on New Years Day 2018, Kim Jong-Un gives a speech

  • as tensions on the Korean peninsula reach a searing point.

  • HILL: At first, I think there was a considerable or a preponderance of views to the

  • effect that this is all an effort to create wedges between the

  • United States and South Korea.

  • It's also an effort really, to show South Korea that

  • North Korea can be a good neighbor even if it has nuclear weapons.

  • NARRATOR: This "olive branch" was heard around the world.

  • -The IOC has approved...

  • NARRATOR: Moon Jae-in invites the north to march together at the games.

  • ALBRIGHT: I can understand what President Moon is trying to do, now,

  • in terms of they are living there in this very dangerous area, and these issues,

  • and they're much more complicated than just one issue like missiles.

  • It's their way of life.

  • NARRATOR: The North Korean delegation arrived at the Olympic games lead by

  • Kim's younger sister and closest confident, Kim Yo-Jong.

  • Her presence captivated the South Koreans, part curiosity, part relief

  • that she appeared so poised and confident.

  • TERRY: North Koreans won on that whole image makeover contest.

  • Kim Yo-Jong was called Ivanka of the Kim administration,

  • she was hugely popular in South Korea,

  • she seemed human, she seemed normal,

  • she was charming, she was smiling.

  • PENCE: We'll be telling the truth about North Korea at every stop.

  • NARRATOR: The American delegation, led by Vice President Pence

  • held talks with North Korean defectors,

  • implored the south to ignore overtures from the north,

  • met with the family of Otto Warmbier,

  • the University of Virginia student who died soon

  • after being released from a North Korean prison in a coma,

  • and avoided a state dinner so not be with the DPRK delegation.

  • During the opening ceremonies the body language could not

  • be more evident as Pence sat stone faced.

  • TERRY: Then when the joint team walked in.

  • It's not only North Korean Olympians,

  • there were South Korean Olympians that were walking in.

  • You can stand up, you can stand up and cheer because this is your ally,

  • South Korea is hosting the Olympics and you're seeing the South Korean athletes also

  • coming in, with North Korean athletes, so you should stand up

  • and be welcoming.

  • I didn't think we scored any kind of points on that image front.

  • NARRATOR: It's on this visit that Kim Yo-Jong hand delivers a letter from her brother,

  • inviting President Moon to meet him in person.

  • Washington watches.

  • ALBRIGHT: President Moon is somebody that is regarded more as a liberal within their

  • system, had come forward with the idea that there needed to be more cooperation.

  • I also do think that there are those who

  • believe in the crazy man theory that some of the threats that

  • President Trump made I think it's conceivable

  • had some role in changing the mind of the North Koreans,

  • but I think the question is: What happens next?

  • NARRATOR: Both Washington and Seoul agree to keep up the diplomatic momentum

  • that began since the new year.

  • And president Moon Jae-in sends a ten-member delegation to Pyongyang.

  • Kim Jong-Un calls the four-hour meeting an "open hearted talk...

  • actively improving the north-south relations and ensuring peace and stability

  • on the Korean peninsula."

  • Washington remains skeptical saying that the south should not normalize relations with

  • the north without discussion of denuclearization.

  • -We remained determined to achieve a denuclearization of

  • the Korean peninsula.

  • NARRATOR: But President Moon, like a matchmaker, persuades the north and the US

  • to soften their positions, insisting that the two initiatives move in parallel,

  • urging the US to start talks with the DPRK.

  • Kim Jong-Un says he will put denuclearization of the peninsula on the table.

  • And three days later Moon's diplomats are at the White House

  • carrying a letter from chairman Kim.

  • NARRATOR: The first time a sitting American president will meet face to face with a

  • leader of North Korea.

  • PRESIDENT TRUMP: Of the Korean Peninsula...

  • NARRATOR: Many in the diplomatic community are surprised, and concerned.

  • An unconventional president meeting an unpredictable dictator, as equals.

  • A president known more for behaving on instinct than precedent who shuns

  • preparation or study, speaking directly with a famously thinned skinned impulsive

  • dictator, all while the White House is embroiled in multiple scandals,

  • a growing global trade war,

  • and the US State Department and national security team

  • are in flux.

  • Secretary of state Rex Tillerson is soon fired by Trump.

  • National security advisor HR McMaster resigns afterward.

  • ALBRIGHT: The issue is how prepared President Trump will be for it.

  • Usually, a summit meeting takes place towards the end of negotiations where the

  • President can then come in and put the last stone in,

  • and really add some piece to it,

  • but not having done the building of the whole thing.

  • And so, it will take incredible discipline.

  • HILL: If it fails, if one of them walks out on a huff,

  • if one of them suggests, "No. We can't do this,"

  • then, where are you going to go?

  • Because you've already put in your closer and your closer,

  • your leader should be able to kind of nail down the last two issues that are out there.

  • Instead, you have your leaders starting the process.

  • RICHARDSON: I think they're both very much alike, they're autocratic,

  • they're unpredictable.

  • and, uh, it could come out a decent outcome but we're unsure.

  • And I've said to the Trump administration, the gamble of talking to Kim Jong-Un

  • is a huge gamble, but I think it's the right gamble, but be prepared.

  • They're relentless.

  • If we're not prepared, we don't have our act together, we put up unrealistic

  • expectations, they're going to outsmart us.

  • NARRATOR: The wheels are literally in motion.

  • RICHARDSON: I've seen that train, nobody else could ride in that train.

  • the good news is that he's starting to talk to other leaders.

  • NARRATOR: It's March 27, 2018.

  • Kim has not traveled outside of the DPRK since he assumed power in 2011.

  • And he has yet to meet with another head of state.

  • RICHARDSON: They're going to China to ask for something and that's diplomacy,

  • you get squeezed, you do something.

  • And this is irrational actor, Kim Jong-Un, taking these steps.

  • I believe, I'm not sure, I'm not there but this is what he's probably doing.

  • NARRATOR: One month before he meets with Moon, chairman Kim in a surprise move,

  • arrives in Beijing to meet president Xi Jinping for the first time.

  • TERRY: I think he was doing a couple things, I think he was trying to get some sort of

  • sanctions relieved, some sort of to see where China is in all of that.

  • Assure China that China's interests would be protected, but I think he also took an

  • opportunity to sort of showcase himself as a leader.

  • I think he really used it to normalize his image, as a normal leader of a normal

  • country, a modern leader of a modern nation, here he brought his very young,

  • attractive wife and other senior North Korean officials,

  • spent four days with President Xi.

  • There's President Xi, his wife, Kim Jong-Un and his attractive wife,

  • drinking, laughing, talking.

  • So a great image makeover for Kim, and I think it was very smart to have done that.

  • NARRATOR: Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe meets with Trump to

  • assure Japan's interests are not in peril.

  • And President Trump confirms that then CIA chief, Mike Pompeo,

  • met secretly with Kim Jong-Un two weeks earlier, on Easter weekend,

  • beginning the planning process of the Trump-Kim summit.

  • PRESIDENT TRUMP: And he just left North Korea, had a great meeting with Kim Jong-Un,

  • got along with him really well, really great.

  • NARRATOR: Pompeo is poised to become Secretary of State.

  • And hard liner, former UN ambassador John Bolton,

  • is appointed National Security Advisor.

  • One week before Kim Jong-Un and Moon Jae-In meet,

  • North Korea declares it will halt all nuclear and long-range missile tests.

  • And as Kim shifts national focus to the north's economy,

  • he says he will shutdown one of his nuclear test sites.

  • President Trump tweets,

  • "This is very good news for North Korea and the world, big progress."

  • Now on the table is the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,

  • and discussion of a peace treaty, officially ending the Korean war which concluded

  • with only an armistice, ceasing seventy years of hostility.

  • NARRATOR: The Panmunjom truce village traverses both North and South Korea inside the

  • Demilitarized Zone along the 38th parallel.

  • Here President Moon and chairman Kim meet for the first time

  • on April 27th, 2018.

  • Kim becomes the first North Korean leader to ever to set foot in the south.

  • The optics show a warm and congenial burgeoning relationship.

  • TERRY: Well it was really interesting to watch Kim Jong-Un in terms of

  • body language, his voice, how he was handling himself.

  • He's nothing like his father, who actually was a very big introvert, and was not social.

  • He looked like Kim II-Sung to me, his grandfather.

  • He was warm, he was effusive, he was touchy-feely.

  • He was affectionate, he laughed whole-heartedly.

  • So, he came across as actually a charming person,

  • a social person who can engage with people, laughing and joking.

  • So, all of that was very interesting to me, as a Korea watcher.

  • NARRATOR: The day long summit ends with a pledge to formally end the Korean war

  • and a declaration to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.

  • Another date is set to start negotiations in mid-May.

  • But fast-moving events in the coming months begin to raise the stakes of whether

  • a summit with Kim and Trump will even happen.

  • The next day Trump holds a campaign-style rally in Macomb County, Michigan.

  • PRESIDENT TRUMP: So we are doing very well.

  • I spoke to the president this morning of South Korea for a long time.

  • They just had a very good meeting.

  • He gives us tremendous credit.

  • He gives us all the credit.

  • I had one of the fake news groups this morning...

  • (crowd boo's).

  • They were saying, "What do you think President Trump had to do with it?"

  • I'll tell you what, like how about everything?

  • NARRATOR: Once the South Koreans thought of Donald Trump

  • as much of a danger as Kim Jong-Un.

  • But now for months, they have been thanking Trump for making

  • the start of a reconciliation possible,

  • some believe it's to appeal to his ego and maintain the momentum of the talks.

  • President Moon tells his senior secretaries,

  • "President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize.

  • What we need is only peace."

  • ALBRIGHT: There are a lot of leaders who I think are playing Trump in

  • terms of understanding that if they flatter him, that they make an impression.

  • PRESIDENT TRUMP: The Nobel Peace prize?

  • -Yes sir.

  • -Well I just think President Moon was very nice when he suggested it.

  • I wanna, I wanna get peace.

  • The main thing, we wanna get peace.

  • NARRATOR: North Korean officials start to take offense that the president is

  • taking all the credit to help bring peace to the region.

  • They claim the sanctions were not responsible for Kim coming to the negotiating table.

  • And Washington is "ruining the mood" leading up to peace talks.

  • TERRY: It's not all just US maximum pressure strategy that led to this point.

  • I think Kim Jong-Un himself had a strategy, he now gets to sit down with

  • the President of the United States for the first time.

  • So, I think this shows that Kim Jong-Un is a different kind of leader.

  • I think he has shown himself to be bold and astute and quite smart, actually.

  • NARRATOR: Then John Bolton, the new national security advisor who favors military

  • action and regime change with hostile nations appears on CBS' Face The Nation.

  • BRENNAN: But is it a requirement that Kim Jong-Un agree to give away those

  • weapons before you give any kind of concession?

  • BOLTON: I think that's right.

  • I think we're looking at the Libya model of 2003, 2004.

  • We're also looking at what North Korea itself has committed to previously.

  • TERRY: North Koreans love to use Libya as an example of

  • why they must keep nuclear weapons.

  • They repeatedly say, look what happened to Gaddafi.

  • Gaddafi gave up nuclear weapons, then the West helped the revolt against Gaddafi,

  • and now Gaddafi's dead.

  • So, when North Koreans hear John Bolton say we're pursuing a Libyan model,

  • I think this is not helpful because North Koreans are always,

  • they are afraid of becoming another Libya.

  • NARRATOR: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

  • arrives in Pyongyang a second time to discuss the summit.

  • This time he returns with three Americans that were jailed in North Korea for

  • crimes against the state.

  • It's believed to be a goodwill gesture by Kim.

  • As the US confers with anxious allies in the region,

  • Kim too makes another surprise trip to Beijing.

  • TERRY: There's multiple overlapping interests and not all of them are aligned.

  • It's very complicated, I speculate that Kim Jong-Un was showing Xi Jinping

  • what a deal with United States might look like and what does China think of it;

  • because you really need Chinas buy in.

  • Meanwhile, our ally Japan is very unhappy how things are unfolding

  • even though they can't really quite say it.

  • Because they are so worried that United States is going to make a deal with

  • North Korea that protects US interests.

  • South Korea is trying to be sort of an honest broker, intermediary,

  • but is sort of worried that everything is going to blow up,

  • so there's a lot going on with different countries trying to seek their own interests.

  • NARRATOR: Meanwhile, President Trump fulfills a campaign promise and

  • pulls out of the Iran nuclear deal amid protests by our European allies.

  • Many speculate what this would signal for the upcoming summit with the DPRK.

  • HILL: It would be an interesting point of conversation, frankly,

  • if Kim Jong-Un said to President Trump,

  • "We've looked at the Iran deal,

  • and you say it's the worst deal ever, why do you say it's the worst deal ever because

  • I'm not sure we can reach a deal that's anywhere as good as the Iran deal from your

  • perspective, Mr. President."

  • So, I think the President is going to have to make some

  • attitudinal changes about the Iran deal in a way that will help if there

  • is a prospect of a North Korea deal.

  • NARRATOR: Wrinkles begin to appear as the DPRK starts reading

  • into statements coming out of Washington.

  • RICHARDSON: Diplomacy is not Twitter or Facebook or press releases or cable news.

  • Diplomacy is human beings talking to each other and reaching an agreement,

  • showing respect, showing respect for culture, letting the other side save face,

  • letting the other side save credit, building relationships.

  • That's diplomacy.

  • NARRATOR: The north releases a statement rejecting Bolton's Libya model claim.

  • Referring to him as "repugnant," they say they will never completely disarm.

  • That combined with a joint South Korean and American military exercise along the

  • border of the north is enough for the north to cancel the next inter-Korean talks and

  • puts the Trump-Kim summit at risk.

  • NARRATOR: To save his summit with Kim, President Trump begins to back pedal on

  • Bolton's statement.

  • PRESIDENT TRUMP: "Well, the Libyan model isn't a model that we have at all when we're

  • thinking of North Korea.

  • But if we make a deal, I think Kim Jong-Un is going to be very, very happy.

  • I really believe he's going to be very happy.

  • But this is just the opposite.

  • And I think when John Bolton made that statement, he was talking about if we're going

  • to be having a problem, because we cannot let that country have nukes,

  • we just can't do it.

  • NARRATOR: With three weeks to the historic summit,

  • set for June 12th 2018 in Singapore, the tension once again rises.

  • And President Moon makes a trip to Washington in the hope he can save the talks.

  • To North Korean experts this is no surprise.

  • The idea of Kim giving up his nuclear arsenal wholesale in exchange for economic relief,

  • was always a non-starter, they want their own security assured.

  • HILL: They'll look for some sort of security agreement quite possibly,

  • asking us not to have any more exercises with the South Koreans.

  • Potentially, they could ask us to remove troops or potentially,

  • they could ask us to reduce our nuclear arsenal.

  • NARRATOR: After meeting with Moon, Trump says he can live with a slower path to

  • denuclearization, reversing his earlier demand for immediate disarmament.

  • It is now that events begin at a frantic pace.

  • The South Korean leadership predicts a 99.9% chance of the summit continuing.

  • But the north picks up on statements made by vice president Pence.

  • PENCE: You know there was some talk about the Libya Model last week,

  • and as the President made clear,

  • this will only end like the Libya Model ended

  • if Kim Jong-Un doesn't make a deal.

  • -Some people saw that as a threat.

  • PENCE: Well I think it's more of a fact.

  • NARRATOR: The North Koreans had only harsh words,

  • calling the vice president a "political dummy."

  • and continued, "Whether the US will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at

  • nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision... of the US"

  • GAUSE: The nuclear program is intimately tied into two primary objectives

  • for Kim Jong-Un and the North Korean regime.

  • One is the survival of the regime, and two is the perpetuation of the Kim family

  • rule, and the nuclear program is intimately tied into that.

  • NARRATOR: The next morning, Trump blindsides the two Koreas and abruptly cancels

  • the summit expressing "tremendous anger and open hostility" on North Korea's

  • part, but he leaves the door open to future talks.

  • PRESIDENT TRUMP: I believe that this is a tremendous setback for North Korea

  • and indeed a setback for the world.

  • NARRATOR: Two days later, chairman Kim and President Moon

  • meet at the truce village.

  • They agree to hold frequent discussions.

  • As the clock ticks, American and North Korean officials hold back channel meetings.

  • The north openly states they are willing to continue with the summit.

  • President Trump thanks chairman Kim for a solid response to his letter and

  • says the White House is preparing for talks on June 12th.

  • President Trump tweets,

  • "We have put a great team together for our talks with North Korea.

  • Meetings are currently taking place concerning summit and more."

  • ALBRIGHT: There is no way to describe to anybody how long it takes to have

  • these kind of talks, and how much preparation has to come from it.

  • Also, what the relationship is with the allied countries.

  • NARRATOR: Now, an event that would normally take months or years

  • to arrange is happening in days.

  • Mike Pompeo meets in New York City to discuss the path to denuclearization with

  • Vice Chairman Kim Yong-Choi,

  • the DPRKs top nuclear negotiator.

  • And in Pyongyang Kim meets with Russia's foreign minister

  • with an invitation to come to Moscow.

  • Raising concerns with the White House.

  • President Trump tweets,

  • "Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements

  • for the summit between Kim Jong Un and myself.

  • I truely believe North Korea has brilliant potential."

  • KRISTOF: It has been incredibly frustrating, and North Korea has lied to us.

  • Has cheated us.

  • We indeed have likewise not fulfilled some of our obligations to North Korea.

  • But the last best hope of trying to resolve some of these issues

  • is going to be to rely on diplomacy.

  • There's no other way, there's no alternative to try to resolve this crisis except

  • to try to negotiate a better one.

  • NARRATOR: After talks with Pompeo, Kim Yong-Choi arrives at the White House

  • carrying a letter from Kim Jong-Un,

  • the first time a North Korean dignitary visited there since 2000.

  • After two hours, President Trump and Vice Chairman Kim Yong-Choi

  • emerge from the White House.

  • PRESIDENT TRUMP: You people are going to have to travel because you'll be in Singapore

  • on June 12th and I think it will be a process.

  • I never said it goes in one meeting, I think it's going to be a process.

  • But the relationships are building and that's a very positive thing.

  • NARRATOR: Two weeks later, after a bruising G-7 summit, Trump is accused of further

  • alienating traditional allies.

  • He leaves for Singapore confident that he can forge a new relationship with a

  • traditional adversary; insisting he doesn't need a lot of preparation.

  • HILL: The whole concern about the summit was the idea that they were

  • essentially going to do it with very little preparation.

  • And the president was going to trust his instincts.

  • That's one problem.

  • The second problem is that sometimes his instincts are wrong.

  • And so that's where you need to have a lot of preparation.

  • They essentially went in with very little preparation and they certainly didn't have an

  • agreement on the overall issue of denuclearization except that North Korea said

  • they're in favor of it.

  • NARRATOR: In Singapore, a media frenzy begins as over 2500 reporters gather.

  • Chairman Kim arrives aboard a Chinese state airliner.

  • Some say it's a message from Xi Jinping that the DPRK is his vassal,

  • tread lightly.

  • The prime minister of Singapore meets with Kim, and everywhere he travels

  • he's treated with rock star status.

  • An international pariah now looked upon as a statesman who may bring peace

  • to a nervous region.

  • President Trump arrives on Air Force One.

  • After a state lunch he remains in his hotel for the night.

  • POMPEO: The president is fully prepared for the meeting tomorrow.

  • I have personally had the opportunity to make sure that he has had the chance to hear

  • lots of different voices, all of the intended opportunities and risks and

  • that we have put these two leaders in the right place.

  • NARRATOR: In stark contrast,

  • Kim seemingly relishes the attention as he tours the streets of the city.

  • Next morning, June 12th,

  • the flag draped stage is set for the historic handshake as the two leaders

  • meet at 9:04 am for the first time.

  • They will speak one on one with only interpreters in the room for 45 minutes.

  • HILL: Probably the thing I worried about the most was when he was going in

  • one on one because he's not terribly well rooted in some of the issues and

  • I thought he might get spun around on that.

  • And we still don't know what he agreed to.

  • NARRATOR: After a working lunch, the two emerge to address an

  • anxious global community.

  • NARRATOR: The analysis is that though the meeting was historic,

  • the details of the agreement were vague at best.

  • Trump spent much time flattering Kim, elevated him to status of an equal,

  • and in a move that blindsided South Korea, Japan, and the Pentagon,

  • Trump agreed to halt US led military exercises on the peninsula potentially

  • weakening any military response.

  • HILL: What was signed was an Agreed Statement, but when you read the text of

  • the Agreed Statement there's a lot less there that meets the eye,

  • certainly less than was agreed back in 2005.

  • I think they'll need another statement or better yet ignore what was done in Singapore and

  • just start building something as the Secretary of State

  • begins the very necessary diplomacy.

  • NARRATOR: The hard work of keeping the north engaged begins.

  • And it could draw out well beyond the Trump administration date of 2020.

  • But for now, the threat of war has been hushed.

  • HILL: This problem is not going to be solved with just the

  • US and North Korea.

  • We need to be talking to the Chinese, we need to be talking to the South Koreans and

  • of course we need to be talking to the Japanese as well.

  • Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.

NARRATOR: On March 26, 2018 a passenger train leaves Pyongyang, North Korea.

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