William R. Richardson

I commend the President for making the tough decision to bring Brittney back. I commend him for trying very hard to get Whelan back.

My worry is--and before, I think, you came in I said it is better to negotiate with the foreign ministry types in North Korea rather than the intelligence people because they are more flexible.

I would say to this administration, for instance, they are obsessed with having South Korea pay more for the military relationship that we have.

Under the Clinton Administration, the agreed framework, North Korea did not produce any weapons for 9 years.

this was a concession in the first summit that we got nothing in return. So we should not concede that one again.

The U.S. military relationship with South Korea is in our interest, too, and sometimes, I will say, the president says, well, they should pay more.

Well, success for me would be a commitment by North Korea to dismantle some--some of their weapons, missiles.

But the sanctions that have, I think, bitten--that bite the most have been the coal, the uranium, the oil sanctions that are imposed now by the U.N.

But, yet, China and Russia are cheating and so what we wanted to do is go after the bigger banks.

His main objective is to stay in power, more so than detente with the United States.

Perhaps a vaguer statement that says tensions are less and the war is over, OK. Maybe. But not as a tradeoff unless there is substantial denuclearization.

I would not trade an end to the war treaty or unless there is a denuclearization of sizable numbers of dismantling of weapons and WMD and missiles.

Russia needs to get tougher and they are not doing it. I think these U.N. sanctions were the strongest that we have ever had.

We absolutely need them to keep enforcing sanctions or the pressure on North Korea will deteriorate.

I believe that the North Koreans--we have a different perspective of what denuclearization is.

You have to have verification standards. A lot of inspectors, have them do an inventory of all their nuclear and missile sites.

Most importantly, I commend them for having this initial meeting between the President and Kim Jong-un alone.

I said, look they're not going to fully denuclearize, but I think you can get some good agreements on possibly dismantling some nuclear and missiles.

I think Kim Jong-un is more. I think he has an end game. I think he's looking at things more broadly, he wasn't settling for foreign assistance handouts.

This potential summit could really lessen tensions in the Korean peninsula, especially for South Korea, for our troops. So this is a good development.

A wall is also a symbol of rejection, that we are saying to Mexico, you are not welcome.

If we delay and not try to fix these problems sooner than later and it gets into a Mexican election, we, the United States, lose leverage by delaying.

I know we were all shocked at where President Trump has taken U.S.-Mexico relations, calling Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers.

The wall is a huge mistake. It is a geopolitical mistake. It is unworkable. It is going to cost $50 billion. Mexico is not going to pay for it.