North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “begged” US President Donald Trump to reschedule their summit meeting after Trump abruptly canceled it last month, Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani said Wednesday.
Trump had canceled the now-rescheduled June 12 meeting with Kim after statements from North Korea in May that called US Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy” and said Pyongyang was ready for a nuclear showdown with Washington if dialogue failed.
“We said we’re not going to have a summit under those circumstances,” Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, told a business conference in Tel Aviv, Israel.
“Well, Kim Jong Un got back on his hands and knees and begged for it, which is exactly the position you want to put him in,” Giuliani said.
There was no immediate reaction from Pyongyang to the comments from Giuliani, who is not a member of the Trump administration but is the President’s lawyer in the special counsel investigation into alleged Russian interference in the US election.
After scrapping the summit on May 24, Trump reinstated it last week after a letter from Kim was hand-delivered to the President at the White House by the North Korean leader’s top envoy.
Trump said at that time that the statements from Pyongyang lampooning Pence and threatening nuclear war were a thing of the past.
“I think we’re over that, totally over that, and now we’re going to deal and we’re going to really start a process,” Trump said. “We’re meeting with the chairman on June 12 and I think it’s probably going to be a very successful — ultimately a successful process.
Giuliani also told the audience that he does not think first lady Melania Trump believes that Trump had an affair with Stormy Daniels.
