WATCH: GOP lawmaker predicts halt in talks if Trump-Kim summit fails

by Molly K. Hooper

A House Republican is predicting a temporary end in talks between the U.S. and North Korea if a planned summit next month between President Trump and Kim Jong Un falls through.

“I don’t think I better predict [if the summit will happen] — I don’t think it’s the end of the issue, but it might be the end of the conversation for the current time,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Hill on Wednesday.

Veteran Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (N.J.) said he is “still hopeful” that the summit takes place “because this is such an important issue, you know, trying to contain North Korea’s nuclear weapons, what they’re doing.” 

Still, Pallone said he doesn’t “have much faith in this administration” to negotiate on the issue.{mosads}

Longtime Trump backer Rep. John Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) argued that if the talks scheduled for June 12 don’t happen, it won’t be the president’s fault.

“[Kim] may be a strange person but … from our briefings, they don’t say that he’s mentally insane — he’s just trying to do whatever he can to stay in power,” Duncan told The Hill.

 
Trump’s plans for the historic nuclear summit with Kim were thrown into further doubt on Tuesday as Trump met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House.
 
Trump expressed confidence that the North Korean leader is “serious” about denuclearization, but he also acknowledged that “there’s a very substantial chance” the summit with Kim “won’t work out.” 

Duncan blamed the latest diplomatic wrinkle on Trump’s newly minted national security adviser John Bolton comparing North Korea’s denuclearization to that of Libya, comments that reportedly spooked Kim.

 
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was forced out of power by NATO-backed forces eight years after striking a deal to give up his nuclear weapons.
 
“John Bolton made a mistake … I doubt that he will admit he made a mistake because he seems to have a pretty high opinion of himself,” Duncan said.
 
Click on the video above to hear the lawmakers in their own words.