In a panel discussion on CNN about the breaking news Thursday that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un invited President Donald Trump to the table, former CIA counter-intelligence officer Phil Mudd called the pitch disingenuous.
"They have said they are not going to test before," host Erin Burnet said. "And every single time they have. And it would seem to defy reason they would give up all of their nuclear program and completely verifiable way which of course is what this administration said they have to do."
Mudd began by saying he wanted to simply "cut to the chase."
"The question is, is it different? Let me give you my answer: hell no," he said. "You have a South Korean adviser, who just walked out of the West Wing and didn't talk about denuclearization, which is what the president has been talking about. He talked about a freeze. So, the president shows up at the table. He says we are going to freeze in a place where the North Koreans have already proven to us that they have a nuclear capability. If you are the North Koreans, you are saying in the past five minutes, I just won."
He explained that the question should be whether or not the North Koreans would continue testing or denuclearize.
"I don't buy this for a second," he continued. "I think the North Koreans have won. I would do this if I were the president. Who knows what the North Koreans will show up with. I think the sanctions are having some impact. But I would place the chance that we see something on denuclearization over the next let's say six, 12, 24 months somewhere between zero and 20 percent, no better."
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