Matt Mackowiak's Mack On Politics

North Korea is the subject of the 118th episode. Our guest is Victor Cha, who withdrew from consideration to be U.S. Ambassador to South Korea in the Trump administration, and is currently Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He formerly served on the National Security Council staff. In this conversation, we preview the upcoming 2nd Trump-Kim Summit, how China plays a crucial role, whether North Korea has made a meaningful denuclearization commitment, how sequencing matters, whether their secret weapons programs have been growing, where the negotiations currently stand, the issue of human rights, the intel challenge that North Korea presents, what message our guest would have for President Trump, and what a successful summit looks like. Finally, we delve into what life in North Korea is really like – especially compared to South Korea.