Warren: Trump’s Meeting With Kim Jong Un Will ‘legitimize’ Their Dictatorship and Nukes

BERTS: Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who has found himself on the opposite end of the table of what President Trump many times in terms of opinion, issued a warning to Kim Jong-un saying if you try to play President Trump, that’s going to be the end of you and the end of your regime.

Senator Graham doesn’t seem to have any concerns that the president is going to get played here, why do you?

WARREN: Well, you know, one of the things we have to remember is that the Kim family, dictator after dictator for generations now, has been holding for a face to face negotiation with an American president. This is the big prize for them, just being able to be in the same picture with him. And a reason for this is the Kims have seen this as an opportunity both to legitimize their dictatorship and to legitimize their nuclear weapons program.

So, my view on this is before you let them have that big prize, before you announce that you’re committed by a time certain to go to that prize, what we need to do is make sure that the North Korean regime has made real steps toward freezing their nuclear program and steps toward winding down their nuclear program and not just promises, but actual verifiable steps that we in the United States can see.

ROBERTS: Which we’re —

WARREN: They shouldn’t be able to get the prize of meeting with the president unless they’ve taken those kinds of steps.

ROBERTS: Which raises the question, though. How would you Senators suggest that that be verified? How do you verify something in North Korea?

WARREN: Well, that’s the point. The North Koreans have to be willing to open the door. And if they’re not willing to verify, then let’s go back to the history we have with North Korea, promise after promise after promise after promise that they have broken. If we let them have a prize just based on a bunch of promises, knowing that they’ve broken every promise in the past, then shame on this administration, shame on the United States.

We have to say, you all have to be willing to open up so that we can verify. If they’re not willing to do that, then they’re not willing to take steps.