Corker: Charming North Korea into getting rid of nuclear weapons is not realistic

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said on Sunday that the Trump administration’s move to “charm” North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons is not realistic. 

“To think that someone’s going to go in and charm him out of that is not realistic,” Corker, who has announced his retirement from the Senate, told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “Is there some progress that can be made? I hope so.”

{mosads}”[Kim] views having deliverable nuclear weapons as his ticket to dying as an old man in his bed,” he said. “He saw what happened with [Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi]. Gaddafi’s a dead man now because he gave up his nuclear weapons.”

President Trump indicated in a tweet on Friday that Kim confirmed North Korean state media reports that Pyongyang would halt nuclear and missile tests and shutter a nuclear test site in the country’s northern region.

A message from Kim Jong Un: “North Korea will stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles.”
Also will “Shut down a nuclear test site in the country’s Northern Side to prove the vow to suspend nuclear tests.” Progress being made for all!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 20, 2018

North Korea has not agreed to give up its nuclear weapons program entirely, however, although most observers believe that is the goal of upcoming expected talks between North and South Korea and the U.S.

Kim has indicated halting its own nuclear testing “is an important process for the worldwide disarmament,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

Trump and Kim are expected to meet face to face sometime next month, marking the first meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.