Ex-Dem governor on Kim meeting: Trump ‘gambling for the right reason’

Former United Nations ambassador Bill Richardson credited President Trump for accepting an offer to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying that, while the meeting is risky, Trump is “gambling for the right reason.”

“I have real reservations about the president’s foreign policy. But on this one, I think he’s gambling for the right reason,” Richardson, a former Democratic governor of New Mexico, said in an interview with radio host John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York.

“So I’m going to give the president credit for very boldly accepting this invitation,” he added. 

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Richardson, who served as the U.S. envoy to the U.N. under former President Bill Clinton, has long been involved in negotiations with North Korea and has traveled to the country multiple times.

His comments came after Trump agreed on Thursday to meet with Kim for talks by the end of May. If the encounter comes to fruition, Trump will be the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a leader of North Korea.

The offer to meet with Trump was the latest diplomatic overture from North Korea, which has sought in recent months to defuse soaring tensions with the U.S and South Korea. Trump last year called Kim “rocket man” while Kim called Trump a “dotard.”

Richardson told Catsimatidis that Trump should refrain in the runup to the proposed meeting from insulting Kim, and should instead let “professional diplomats run the show.”

“This has never happened – presidents from North Korea and the United States,” he said. “I think this is good. But he should just be careful. This is high-stakes diplomacy. This is not reality TV.”