On June 1, 2018, ASPI Vice President Daniel Russel spoke with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell and RickStengel about the prospects for a summit meeting between the United States and North Korea. The interview took place just after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with North Korea's Vice-Chairman Kim Yong Chol, who has brought a letter from Kim Jong Un for President Donald Trump. 

Being that both Trump and Kim are “into declarative success,” Russel believes that the summit is likely to occur. However, unlike North Korea, which “had been preparing for this moment and meeting with the president of the United States for generations,” the U.S. appears to be “unprepared” for the upcoming summit. Russel warns that the best results the U.S. could hope for from the summit are “promises,” which in North Korea’s case in the past, “have proven to be empty.”

With regards to the national interests of North Korea’s neighboring countries, Russel observes that Japan has been sidelined by the United States’ “impulsive decision to hold a direct summit without any diplomatic process.” On the other hand, China has rapidly warmed to North Korea by welcoming Kim “like a returning hero” during his visits to Beijing, while Russia’s Foreign Minister has also met with Kim in Moscow. Russel cautions that Trump’s eagerness to engage Kim personally has transformed North Korea's despotic leader from “pariah to Mr. Popularity.” (6 min. 41 sec.)

Watch the interview on MSNBC.