Former UN ambassador: Trump ‘should be patient’ with North Korea

Former United Nations Ambassador Bill Richardson said President Trump should be more patient with North Korea and not jump into a summit without agreement. 

“On President Trump, he should be patient,” Richardson said in an interview with radio host John Catsimatidis that aired Sunday on AM 970 in New York.

“He’s sometimes very impatient, and he likes the big summits with a lot of press,” he added. “He should just let his people get the North Koreans to make some concessions to get another summit.”{mosads}

Richardson blamed a lack of agreement going into the most recent meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the summit’s ultimate collapse. 

“You have to have some agreement before a potential summit,” he said. “This didn’t happen in Vietnam, so as a result it was a disaster, the fact that both sides walked away with nothing.”

Richardson, who also served as the energy secretary under former President Clinton, said he believed a “sensible compromise” would include “some denuclearization” and “some missile curbing” in exchange for “some sanctions relief.”

Kim and Trump met in February in an unsuccessful summit. North Korean state media said that Kim on Wednesday night watched the test firing of a “new-type tactical guided weapon.”  

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan confirmed that there was a weapons test but that it was “not a ballistic missile.”