NARRATOR: On March 26, 2018 a passenger train leaves Pyongyang, North Korea.
21 bullet proof cars painted an olive drab lumber across the countryside,
then over the Chinese border.
Rumors begin throughout the international community.
This is the official train of the North Korea leadership.
Also used by Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il,
the grandfather and father of current leader, Kim Jong-Un.
No one outside of the notoriously secretive nation knows who is aboard.
Some speculate it is Kim Yo-Jong, Un's younger sister and most trusted advisor.
It is not until the train reaches its final destination, Beijing,
that it's revealed Kim Jong-Un, the 34-year-old dictator himself,
is the passenger.
In the months preceding this meeting...
What follows in Beijing...
And in the months to come...
Are the preliminary steps to what may be the most
important diplomatic event of our young century.
A path to peace on the Korean peninsula and a way to bring the North Koreans
into the international fold after 70 years of isolation.
But the path to peace will be one of twists and turns as allies and the US
jockey for position to protect their interests and maintain security.
By the time President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-Un meet face to face
in Singapore, it is still unclear what each party wants or will be willing to do.
This is the Great Game.
♪ ♪
North Korea remains an enigma.
-Good Morning, how are you, Mr. Vice President?
Very nice to see you.
NARRATOR: And only those who have sat across the table with
North Korean negotiators understand the challenges.
RICHARDSON: I do believe that they're very tough, they're very well prepared.
They read everything, especially media.
What makes them so tough, it's not just their culture,
but the fact that they've been isolated.
They've been sanctioned.
They hardly any of them, the citizens, leave North Korea.
They have television that's programmed every evening,
for three hours the government tells you what you're going to see.
And inevitably, they hate the United States.
HILL: At the end of the day, diplomacy is really trying
to get the other side to do something they don't really want to do.
in dealing with another country, make it clear that you make the hard choices
today and I'm not promising you the end of hard choices,
but I'm promising you that in the future you won't have to make them alone.
ALBRIGHT: Mostly, I don't see it as a gift.
You usually use diplomacy more with your adversaries than with your friends.
And so it is this matter of being prepared and putting yourself into the other
country's shoes and figuring out what you do in order to solve the problem,
and it's not a gift.
It is how you talk to those you disagree with.
NARRATOR: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK,
is anything but democratic.
From the ashes of World War II,
loomed the first post-war spread of Soviet communism.
In August 1945, the Korean peninsula and her people were
effectively divided at the 38th parallel.
An arbitrary divide.
Using a National Geographic map, the future US Secretary of state,
Dean Rusk and fellow army staffer Col. Charles "Tic" Bonesteel
knew the decision of the 38th parallel made no economic or
geographic sense, but with the cold war about to cast a long shadow,
the United States wanted Seoul and the democratic leaning south, under their alliance.
Kim Il-Sung, the young charismatic rebel famous for his insurrection against the
brutal decades old Japanese occupation,
vied for power and shaped this new republic in
the Stalinist fashion adopting a totalitarian reign of terror.
Kim solidified his place in the soviet backed north, then sought to unify the peninsula
by invading the south and starting the Korean conflict on June 25th, 1950.
Reporter (over TV): In an era of renewed optimism.
NARRATOR: Three years later a cease-fire was reached.
North Korea, a nation established by warfare,
will be perpetuated by self-imposed isolation, bloodshed,
and humanitarian horrors.
TERRY: It's the most unique country in the world.
What other country in the world is Confucian, communist, hereditary, dynasty,
there's no country like this.
While it also commits human rights violations.
United Nations Commission of Inquiries said,
"there's no other parallel in contemporary history, except Nazi, Germany"
and this is North Korea.
I don't think there is another country that is more isolated than North Korea,
so truly a unique place.
NARRATOR: And they have been challenging American policy, for nearly 70 years.
HILL: I think any political question has to start with a map.
And if you look at a map of Northeast Asia, it's a pretty compact area.
You're seeing Russian far east interest right there.
You're seeing Japan right there.
China, enormous interest right there, South Korea.
And then, in the middle of this,
you have this funny little thing called North Korea.
How does it affect the countries around it and I would say,
it affects them all big time.
TERRY: North Korea has figured out how to work the United States.
There is usually a provocation of some sort, whether it is a missile test or a nuke test.
Then there is international condemnation that follows,
and then they sort of up the ante, like a poker game.
"Oh yeah? Here's more!"
Then, sort of a collective "Oh no!"
And then they step back and say, "OK. Here is what we can do."
They have some sort of charm offensive, peace offensive.
Then we meet with them, we negotiate, we give them aids, some rewards,
some time passes, then back to provocation.
It's a provoke and get paid cycle.
NARRATOR: For generations, the North Korean people have been controlled
by a police state that has perfected propaganda to an art.
Their belief in the Kim family dynasty,
is absolute devotion.
Information is tightly controlled by the Korean central news agency,
the KCNA, established in 1946.
KRISTOF: There've obviously been many other deeply repressive
Communist dictators, Stalin, Mao.
They didn't have the technology that the Kim family had.
They didn't have the degree of social control, so they didn't have speakers on every,
in every village, speakers in the wall of every home to control people.
They didn't have television in every home.
They didn't even have these portraits of the leaders
it's kind of a religious cult.
RICHARDSON: It's the deity,
it's the leaders, the grandfather, the father, and now Kim Jong-Un,
that are not just political figures, they're god like religious figures.
And what they say determines how North Koreans act.
GAUSE: Kim Jong-Un only had a very short amount of time to
build his legitimacy within the regime.
Kim Jong-Il by comparison had 30 years to create his legitimacy.
Kim Jong-Un had none of this, but a lot of things, very interesting things began to
happen when Kim Jong-Un came to power.
The first thing that happened is they had the missile test,
which was a failure.
But what does North Korea do?
They admit it was a failure, unprecedented.
Why did they do that?
It gave people pause to think that maybe this was something different.
Kim Jong-Un laid down the Rosetta Stone of where he wanted to take this regime.
People would no longer have to tighten their belts,
this was an important statement by Kim Jong-Un.
There was no mention whatsoever of the nuclear program in that speech because
that's not where Kim Jong-Un wanted his legacy.
That was Kim Jong-Il's legacy was the nuclear program.
His legacy was to create the strong and prosperous nation.
HILL: He then created a kind of chaotic situation within the worker's party,
the North Korean Workers' Party and actually had his uncle Jang Song-Thaek
perp-walked out of a party meeting and killed the next day.
So, Kim Jong-Un began a series of executions of senior North Korean figures
such that it was hard to find a common denominator of why these people had been executed.
But certainly, one can speculate that he didn't feel
they were sufficiently loyal to him.
NARRATOR: He purges over 400 senior military and ministry leaders publicly.
And allegedly has his older half-brother murdered in a Malaysian airport,
poisoned by unwitting assassins.
But he needs something else to secure the Kim dynasty, nuclear weapons that could
pose a real and present danger to America and her Asian allies.
GAUSE: This would be the launching of the the Kim Jong-Un era.
He had to show legitimacy.
And if he couldn't show legitimacy on the economic realm,
he had to show legitimacy in the security realm.
And so he began to move very quickly towards developing the nuclear program so that he
would have something to hang his hat on.
So, it will give him a much stronger position in which
to negotiate with the United States.
NARRATOR: Kim Jong-Il moved the nuclear program forward in spite of
international outcry and on again off again treaties.
Now it is his son who may finish the job,
having a strong hand to negotiate a way for his
impoverished nation to have an economic revival.
ALBRIGHT: I think that he does have a good hand to play.
I mean, he has in fact, from his perspective, developed a nuclear potential and missiles
to do the delivery on it, and he's managed to scare
the whole region into doing something.
NARRATOR: Through 2016 to mid-September, 2017, Kim Jong-Un
conducts three nuclear tests, including a hydrogen bomb,
and 30 short and long-range missile launches;
including Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.
Kim claims that they have nuclear warheads
small enough to fit on each ICBM.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: In 70 years, in times of war and peace...
NARRATOR: In September 2017 president Donald Trump
addresses the UN General Assembly.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No one has shown more contempt for other nations,
and for the well-being of their people than the depraved regime in North Korea.
NARRATOR: He delivers a fiery speech attacking Kim Jong-Un
and threatening the destruction of his country.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself, and for his regime...
NARRATOR: Trump's rhetoric feeds directly into the north's propaganda machine,
that America wants to annihilate North Korea.
TERRY: I think that was definitely off script, I can't impossibly imagine
the administration officials like Mattis or Secretary Tillerson,
advocating totally destroying North Korea,
I just can't possibly fathom that,
so I think that was President Trump speaking.
KRISTOF: I think North Korean officials have played a weak hand just brilliantly.
While I think the US approach has to some degree backfired.
Essentially the US was trying to intimidate North Korea
with some of this rhetoric about fire and fury, about complete destruction.
And I think what we actually accomplished was that we terrified South Korea into
engaging in diplomacy with North Korea.
ALBRIGHT: I think that it's very hard to really assess what effect President Trump's
language had on Kim Jong-Un.
I don't know whether it scared the Japanese, too.
NARRATOR: The United Nations Security Council votes for maximum pressure through
economic sanctions against the north.
HALEY: We have kicked the can down the road long enough.
There is no more road left.
NARRATOR: A war of words between Pyongyang and President Trump begins.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: North Korea bess not make any more threats to the United States.
NARRATOR: Kim refers to Trump as a "mentally deranged dotard."
Trump insists his red button is bigger than Kim's.
Still the DPRK tests another ICBM, this one experts agree,
has a range that could hit the continental United States.
The US Talked openly about a "bloody nose"
military strike that would cripple nuclear testing sites.
Only a handful of experts believed this was a viable solution.
KRISTOF: Diplomacy is a hugely inefficient toolbox.
It doesn't work very well.
But in cases like North Korea, it's all we have to resolve this crisis.
Ever since 1969, when North Korea shot down a US aircraft
and killed a bunch of Americans,
the US has looked for ways to shape North Korean behavior.
So repeatedly you have very smart officials who, when they're out of power,
they talk about military options.
And then once in power, and they look at the predictions of perhaps a million-people
dying on the very first day of a war with North Korea, then they think well,
okay maybe this isn't the best option.
And they look at what's left.
And what's left is diplomacy.
NARRATOR: Adding to the growing anxiety on the peninsula,
south Korea was preparing the 2018 Olympic games.
And there was precedent to feel insecure; thirty years earlier in 1988,
South Korea's first Olympics were being planned.
The supreme leader, Kim Il-Sung set out to create a chaotic
atmosphere to keep people away from the games.
JENNINGS (over TV): Investigators now believe that a bomb,
possibly planted by 2 passengers may have caused Sunday's crash
of a Korean Airliner.
TERRY: They downed a civilian airliner, killed 115 people on board,
it was a major terror attack.
That was the reason why the United States put North Korea
on the states sponsor of terror list,
and it also shows you just the brutality and just the insanity because they
downed a civilian airliner killing 115 people on board just to disrupt
the Olympics that was going to be held in South Korea.
NARRATOR: The DPRK was banned from competition.
But the games went on, a huge coming out party,
a turning point for Seoul as it pulled further away from the north politically,
economically and culturally.
It only fueled the rivalry between the two Koreas.
Then, on New Years Day 2018, Kim Jong-Un gives a speech
as tensions on the Korean peninsula reach a searing point.
HILL: At first, I think there was a considerable or a preponderance of views to the
effect that this is all an effort to create wedges between the
United States and South Korea.
It's also an effort really, to show South Korea that
North Korea can be a good neighbor even if it has nuclear weapons.
NARRATOR: This "olive branch" was heard around the world.
-The IOC has approved...
NARRATOR: Moon Jae-in invites the north to march together at the games.
ALBRIGHT: I can understand what President Moon is trying to do, now,
in terms of they are living there in this very dangerous area, and these issues,
and they're much more complicated than just one issue like missiles.
It's their way of life.
NARRATOR: The North Korean delegation arrived at the Olympic games lead by
Kim's younger sister and closest confident, Kim Yo-Jong.
Her presence captivated the South Koreans, part curiosity, part relief
that she appeared so poised and confident.
TERRY: North Koreans won on that whole image makeover contest.
Kim Yo-Jong was called Ivanka of the Kim administration,
she was hugely popular in South Korea,
she seemed human, she seemed normal,
she was charming, she was smiling.
PENCE: We'll be telling the truth about North Korea at every stop.
NARRATOR: The American delegation, led by Vice President Pence
held talks with North Korean defectors,
implored the south to ignore overtures from the north,
met with the family of Otto Warmbier,
the University of Virginia student who died soon
after being released from a North Korean prison in a coma,
and avoided a state dinner so not be with the DPRK delegation.
During the opening ceremonies the body language could not
be more evident as Pence sat stone faced.
TERRY: Then when the joint team walked in.
It's not only North Korean Olympians,
there were South Korean Olympians that were walking in.
You can stand up, you can stand up and cheer because this is your ally,
South Korea is hosting the Olympics and you're seeing the South Korean athletes also
coming in, with North Korean athletes, so you should stand up
and be welcoming.
I didn't think we scored any kind of points on that image front.
NARRATOR: It's on this visit that Kim Yo-Jong hand delivers a letter from her brother,
inviting President Moon to meet him in person.
Washington watches.
ALBRIGHT: President Moon is somebody that is regarded more as a liberal within their
system, had come forward with the idea that there needed to be more cooperation.
I also do think that there are those who
believe in the crazy man theory that some of the threats that
President Trump made I think it's conceivable
had some role in changing the mind of the North Koreans,
but I think the question is: What happens next?
NARRATOR: Both Washington and Seoul agree to keep up the diplomatic momentum
that began since the new year.
And president Moon Jae-in sends a ten-member delegation to Pyongyang.
Kim Jong-Un calls the four-hour meeting an "open hearted talk...
actively improving the north-south relations and ensuring peace and stability
on the Korean peninsula."
Washington remains skeptical saying that the south should not normalize relations with
the north without discussion of denuclearization.
-We remained determined to achieve a denuclearization of
the Korean peninsula.
NARRATOR: But President Moon, like a matchmaker, persuades the north and the US
to soften their positions, insisting that the two initiatives move in parallel,
urging the US to start talks with the DPRK.
Kim Jong-Un says he will put denuclearization of the peninsula on the table.
And three days later Moon's diplomats are at the White House
carrying a letter from chairman Kim.
NARRATOR: The first time a sitting American president will meet face to face with a
leader of North Korea.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Of the Korean Peninsula...
NARRATOR: Many in the diplomatic community are surprised, and concerned.
An unconventional president meeting an unpredictable dictator, as equals.
A president known more for behaving on instinct than precedent who shuns
preparation or study, speaking directly with a famously thinned skinned impulsive
dictator, all while the White House is embroiled in multiple scandals,
a growing global trade war,
and the US State Department and national security team
are in flux.
Secretary of state Rex Tillerson is soon fired by Trump.
National security advisor HR McMaster resigns afterward.
ALBRIGHT: The issue is how prepared President Trump will be for it.
Usually, a summit meeting takes place towards the end of negotiations where the
President can then come in and put the last stone in,
and really add some piece to it,
but not having done the building of the whole thing.
And so, it will take incredible discipline.
HILL: If it fails, if one of them walks out on a huff,
if one of them suggests, "No. We can't do this,"
then, where are you going to go?
Because you've already put in your closer and your closer,
your leader should be able to kind of nail down the last two issues that are out there.
Instead, you have your leaders starting the process.
RICHARDSON: I think they're both very much alike, they're autocratic,
they're unpredictable.
and, uh, it could come out a decent outcome but we're unsure.
And I've said to the Trump administration, the gamble of talking to Kim Jong-Un
is a huge gamble, but I think it's the right gamble, but be prepared.
They're relentless.
If we're not prepared, we don't have our act together, we put up unrealistic
expectations, they're going to outsmart us.
NARRATOR: The wheels are literally in motion.
RICHARDSON: I've seen that train, nobody else could ride in that train.
the good news is that he's starting to talk to other leaders.
NARRATOR: It's March 27, 2018.
Kim has not traveled outside of the DPRK since he assumed power in 2011.
And he has yet to meet with another head of state.
RICHARDSON: They're going to China to ask for something and that's diplomacy,
you get squeezed, you do something.
And this is irrational actor, Kim Jong-Un, taking these steps.
I believe, I'm not sure, I'm not there but this is what he's probably doing.
NARRATOR: One month before he meets with Moon, chairman Kim in a surprise move,
arrives in Beijing to meet president Xi Jinping for the first time.
TERRY: I think he was doing a couple things, I think he was trying to get some sort of
sanctions relieved, some sort of to see where China is in all of that.
Assure China that China's interests would be protected, but I think he also took an
opportunity to sort of showcase himself as a leader.
I think he really used it to normalize his image, as a normal leader of a normal
country, a modern leader of a modern nation, here he brought his very young,
attractive wife and other senior North Korean officials,
spent four days with President Xi.
There's President Xi, his wife, Kim Jong-Un and his attractive wife,
drinking, laughing, talking.
So a great image makeover for Kim, and I think it was very smart to have done that.
NARRATOR: Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe meets with Trump to
assure Japan's interests are not in peril.
And President Trump confirms that then CIA chief, Mike Pompeo,
met secretly with Kim Jong-Un two weeks earlier, on Easter weekend,
beginning the planning process of the Trump-Kim summit.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: And he just left North Korea, had a great meeting with Kim Jong-Un,
got along with him really well, really great.
NARRATOR: Pompeo is poised to become Secretary of State.
And hard liner, former UN ambassador John Bolton,
is appointed National Security Advisor.
One week before Kim Jong-Un and Moon Jae-In meet,
North Korea declares it will halt all nuclear and long-range missile tests.
And as Kim shifts national focus to the north's economy,
he says he will shutdown one of his nuclear test sites.
President Trump tweets,
"This is very good news for North Korea and the world, big progress."
Now on the table is the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,
and discussion of a peace treaty, officially ending the Korean war which concluded
with only an armistice, ceasing seventy years of hostility.
NARRATOR: The Panmunjom truce village traverses both North and South Korea inside the
Demilitarized Zone along the 38th parallel.
Here President Moon and chairman Kim meet for the first time
on April 27th, 2018.
Kim becomes the first North Korean leader to ever to set foot in the south.
The optics show a warm and congenial burgeoning relationship.
TERRY: Well it was really interesting to watch Kim Jong-Un in terms of
body language, his voice, how he was handling himself.
He's nothing like his father, who actually was a very big introvert, and was not social.
He looked like Kim II-Sung to me, his grandfather.
He was warm, he was effusive, he was touchy-feely.
He was affectionate, he laughed whole-heartedly.
So, he came across as actually a charming person,
a social person who can engage with people, laughing and joking.
So, all of that was very interesting to me, as a Korea watcher.
NARRATOR: The day long summit ends with a pledge to formally end the Korean war
and a declaration to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
Another date is set to start negotiations in mid-May.
But fast-moving events in the coming months begin to raise the stakes of whether
a summit with Kim and Trump will even happen.
The next day Trump holds a campaign-style rally in Macomb County, Michigan.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: So we are doing very well.
I spoke to the president this morning of South Korea for a long time.
They just had a very good meeting.
He gives us tremendous credit.
He gives us all the credit.
I had one of the fake news groups this morning...
(crowd boo's).
They were saying, "What do you think President Trump had to do with it?"
I'll tell you what, like how about everything?
NARRATOR: Once the South Koreans thought of Donald Trump
as much of a danger as Kim Jong-Un.
But now for months, they have been thanking Trump for making
the start of a reconciliation possible,
some believe it's to appeal to his ego and maintain the momentum of the talks.
President Moon tells his senior secretaries,
"President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize.
What we need is only peace."
ALBRIGHT: There are a lot of leaders who I think are playing Trump in
terms of understanding that if they flatter him, that they make an impression.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: The Nobel Peace prize?
-Yes sir.
-Well I just think President Moon was very nice when he suggested it.
I wanna, I wanna get peace.
The main thing, we wanna get peace.
NARRATOR: North Korean officials start to take offense that the president is
taking all the credit to help bring peace to the region.
They claim the sanctions were not responsible for Kim coming to the negotiating table.
And Washington is "ruining the mood" leading up to peace talks.
TERRY: It's not all just US maximum pressure strategy that led to this point.
I think Kim Jong-Un himself had a strategy, he now gets to sit down with
the President of the United States for the first time.
So, I think this shows that Kim Jong-Un is a different kind of leader.
I think he has shown himself to be bold and astute and quite smart, actually.
NARRATOR: Then John Bolton, the new national security advisor who favors military
action and regime change with hostile nations appears on CBS' Face The Nation.
BRENNAN: But is it a requirement that Kim Jong-Un agree to give away those
weapons before you give any kind of concession?
BOLTON: I think that's right.
I think we're looking at the Libya model of 2003, 2004.
We're also looking at what North Korea itself has committed to previously.
TERRY: North Koreans love to use Libya as an example of
why they must keep nuclear weapons.
They repeatedly say, look what happened to Gaddafi.
Gaddafi gave up nuclear weapons, then the West helped the revolt against Gaddafi,
and now Gaddafi's dead.
So, when North Koreans hear John Bolton say we're pursuing a Libyan model,
I think this is not helpful because North Koreans are always,
they are afraid of becoming another Libya.
NARRATOR: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
arrives in Pyongyang a second time to discuss the summit.
This time he returns with three Americans that were jailed in North Korea for
crimes against the state.
It's believed to be a goodwill gesture by Kim.
As the US confers with anxious allies in the region,
Kim too makes another surprise trip to Beijing.
TERRY: There's multiple overlapping interests and not all of them are aligned.
It's very complicated, I speculate that Kim Jong-Un was showing Xi Jinping
what a deal with United States might look like and what does China think of it;
because you really need Chinas buy in.
Meanwhile, our ally Japan is very unhappy how things are unfolding
even though they can't really quite say it.
Because they are so worried that United States is going to make a deal with
North Korea that protects US interests.
South Korea is trying to be sort of an honest broker, intermediary,
but is sort of worried that everything is going to blow up,
so there's a lot going on with different countries trying to seek their own interests.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile, President Trump fulfills a campaign promise and
pulls out of the Iran nuclear deal amid protests by our European allies.
Many speculate what this would signal for the upcoming summit with the DPRK.
HILL: It would be an interesting point of conversation, frankly,
if Kim Jong-Un said to President Trump,
"We've looked at the Iran deal,
and you say it's the worst deal ever, why do you say it's the worst deal ever because
I'm not sure we can reach a deal that's anywhere as good as the Iran deal from your
perspective, Mr. President."
So, I think the President is going to have to make some
attitudinal changes about the Iran deal in a way that will help if there
is a prospect of a North Korea deal.
NARRATOR: Wrinkles begin to appear as the DPRK starts reading
into statements coming out of Washington.
RICHARDSON: Diplomacy is not
Diplomacy is human beings talking to each other and reaching an agreement,
showing respect, showing respect for culture, letting the other side save face,
letting the other side save credit, building relationships.
That's diplomacy.
NARRATOR: The north releases a statement rejecting Bolton's Libya model claim.
Referring to him as "repugnant," they say they will never completely disarm.
That combined with a joint South Korean and American military exercise along the
border of the north is enough for the north to cancel the next inter-Korean talks and
puts the Trump-Kim summit at risk.
NARRATOR: To save his summit with Kim, President Trump begins to back pedal on
Bolton's statement.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: "Well, the Libyan model isn't a model that we have at all when we're
thinking of North Korea.
But if we make a deal, I think Kim Jong-Un is going to be very, very happy.
I really believe he's going to be very happy.
But this is just the opposite.
And I think when John Bolton made that statement, he was talking about if we're going
to be having a problem, because we cannot let that country have nukes,
we just can't do it.
NARRATOR: With three weeks to the historic summit,
set for June 12th 2018 in Singapore, the tension once again rises.
And President Moon makes a trip to Washington in the hope he can save the talks.
To North Korean experts this is no surprise.
The idea of Kim giving up his nuclear arsenal wholesale in exchange for economic relief,
was always a non-starter, they want their own security assured.
HILL: They'll look for some sort of security agreement quite possibly,
asking us not to have any more exercises with the South Koreans.
Potentially, they could ask us to remove troops or potentially,
they could ask us to reduce our nuclear arsenal.
NARRATOR: After meeting with Moon, Trump says he can live with a slower path to
denuclearization, reversing his earlier demand for immediate disarmament.
It is now that events begin at a frantic pace.
The South Korean leadership predicts a 99.9% chance of the summit continuing.
But the north picks up on statements made by vice president Pence.
PENCE: You know there was some talk about the Libya Model last week,
and as the President made clear,
this will only end like the Libya Model ended
if Kim Jong-Un doesn't make a deal.
-Some people saw that as a threat.
PENCE: Well I think it's more of a fact.
NARRATOR: The North Koreans had only harsh words,
calling the vice president a "political dummy."
and continued, "Whether the US will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at
nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision... of the US"
GAUSE: The nuclear program is intimately tied into two primary objectives
for Kim Jong-Un and the North Korean regime.
One is the survival of the regime, and two is the perpetuation of the Kim family
rule, and the nuclear program is intimately tied into that.
NARRATOR: The next morning, Trump blindsides the two Koreas and abruptly cancels
the summit expressing "tremendous anger and open hostility" on North Korea's
part, but he leaves the door open to future talks.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I believe that this is a tremendous setback for North Korea
and indeed a setback for the world.
NARRATOR: Two days later, chairman Kim and President Moon
meet at the truce village.
They agree to hold frequent discussions.
As the clock ticks, American and North Korean officials hold back channel meetings.
The north openly states they are willing to continue with the summit.
President Trump thanks chairman Kim for a solid response to his letter and
says the White House is preparing for talks on June 12th.
President Trump tweets,
"We have put a great team together for our talks with North Korea.
Meetings are currently taking place concerning summit and more."
ALBRIGHT: There is no way to describe to anybody how long it takes to have
these kind of talks, and how much preparation has to come from it.
Also, what the relationship is with the allied countries.
NARRATOR: Now, an event that would normally take months or years
to arrange is happening in days.
Mike Pompeo meets in New York City to discuss the path to denuclearization with
Vice Chairman Kim Yong-Choi,
the DPRKs top nuclear negotiator.
And in Pyongyang Kim meets with Russia's foreign minister
with an invitation to come to Moscow.
Raising concerns with the White House.
President Trump tweets,
"Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements
for the summit between Kim Jong Un and myself.
I truely believe North Korea has brilliant potential."
KRISTOF: It has been incredibly frustrating, and North Korea has lied to us.
Has cheated us.
We indeed have likewise not fulfilled some of our obligations to North Korea.
But the last best hope of trying to resolve some of these issues
is going to be to rely on diplomacy.
There's no other way, there's no alternative to try to resolve this crisis except
to try to negotiate a better one.
NARRATOR: After talks with Pompeo, Kim Yong-Choi arrives at the White House
carrying a letter from Kim Jong-Un,
the first time a North Korean dignitary visited there since 2000.
After two hours, President Trump and Vice Chairman Kim Yong-Choi
emerge from the White House.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: You people are going to have to travel because you'll be in Singapore
on June 12th and I think it will be a process.
I never said it goes in one meeting, I think it's going to be a process.
But the relationships are building and that's a very positive thing.
NARRATOR: Two weeks later, after a bruising G-7 summit, Trump is accused of further
alienating traditional allies.
He leaves for Singapore confident that he can forge a new relationship with a
traditional adversary; insisting he doesn't need a lot of preparation.
HILL: The whole concern about the summit was the idea that they were
essentially going to do it with very little preparation.
And the president was going to trust his instincts.
That's one problem.
The second problem is that sometimes his instincts are wrong.
And so that's where you need to have a lot of preparation.
They essentially went in with very little preparation and they certainly didn't have an
agreement on the overall issue of denuclearization except that North Korea said
they're in favor of it.
NARRATOR: In Singapore, a media frenzy begins as over 2500 reporters gather.
Chairman Kim arrives aboard a Chinese state airliner.
Some say it's a message from Xi Jinping that the DPRK is his vassal,
tread lightly.
The prime minister of Singapore meets with Kim, and everywhere he travels
he's treated with rock star status.
An international pariah now looked upon as a statesman who may bring peace
to a nervous region.
President Trump arrives on Air Force One.
After a state lunch he remains in his hotel for the night.
POMPEO: The president is fully prepared for the meeting tomorrow.
I have personally had the opportunity to make sure that he has had the chance to hear
lots of different voices, all of the intended opportunities and risks and
that we have put these two leaders in the right place.
NARRATOR: In stark contrast,
Kim seemingly relishes the attention as he tours the streets of the city.
Next morning, June 12th,
the flag draped stage is set for the historic handshake as the two leaders
meet at 9:04 am for the first time.
They will speak one on one with only interpreters in the room for 45 minutes.
HILL: Probably the thing I worried about the most was when he was going in
one on one because he's not terribly well rooted in some of the issues and
I thought he might get spun around on that.
And we still don't know what he agreed to.
NARRATOR: After a working lunch, the two emerge to address an
anxious global community.
NARRATOR: The analysis is that though the meeting was historic,
the details of the agreement were vague at best.
Trump spent much time flattering Kim, elevated him to status of an equal,
and in a move that blindsided South Korea, Japan, and the Pentagon,
Trump agreed to halt US led military exercises on the peninsula potentially
weakening any military response.
HILL: What was signed was an Agreed Statement, but when you read the text of
the Agreed Statement there's a lot less there that meets the eye,
certainly less than was agreed back in 2005.
I think they'll need another statement or better yet ignore what was done in Singapore and
just start building something as the Secretary of State
begins the very necessary diplomacy.
NARRATOR: The hard work of keeping the north engaged begins.
And it could draw out well beyond the Trump administration date of 2020.
But for now, the threat of war has been hushed.
HILL: This problem is not going to be solved with just the
US and North Korea.
We need to be talking to the Chinese, we need to be talking to the South Koreans and
of course we need to be talking to the Japanese as well.
Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.