President Donald Trump needs “more substantial” results from the next meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut said Wednesday.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, the former Democrat said he “doubts” there would have been a war with North Korea if it were not for Trump’s pressure on North Korea to talk about denuclearization.
“He did claim some change in North Korean policy which he should get credit for,” Lieberman said. “They’ve stopped testing their nuclear weapons… building some ballistic missiles.”
But Lieberman said the next meeting with Kim, on Feb. 27, must be different.
“It’s good that President Trump is talking to Kim Jong Un, but really it’s time now for something more substantial to happen,” he said. “Hopefully, it will at the next meeting.”
Lieberman said history has warned us that “with the North Koreans, we got to mistrust and verify.”
“The North Koreans have had a record of negotiating, getting large amounts of money from us and others in the world, stopping their nuclear program for awhile, not ending it, and then eventually starting up again and going away with the money,” he said.
“We got to make sure that doesn’t happen again. There are little indications of hope that this leader is ready to open up North Korea little bit and at least become more of a member of the civilized nations,” he added. “But talk about ‘trust and verify’ — based on history with the North Koreans we got to mistrust and verify.”