"I think we have a failed summit on our hands right now," the former defense secretary said
Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said President Trump’s “failed” Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June was “doomed” from the beginning.
“The problem is that in many ways it was doomed to failure from the beginning, because there was never the preparatory work that has to be done prior to a summit meeting,” Panetta said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday. “This was all about show, it was about shaking hands and exchanging words.”
The underlying work on process and looking at nuclear weapons sites and determining inspection regimes, Panetta said, didn’t happen as needed. Now, Panetta said he’s “very worried” about the North Korea situation, “because frankly, I think we have a failed summit on our hands right now.”
“There’s a long list of failed efforts throughout history, this may be another one of those,” said Panetta who served as defense secretary and CIA director under former President Barack Obama.
Mr. Trump has remained optimistic about the future of North Korea, after declaring North Korea no longer a nuclear threat following the summit. But even he has had to admit the progress has been insufficient.
