James Clapper: Kim Jong Un ‘May Have Met His Match’ With ‘Unconventional’ Trump

James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, appeared Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union and said he supports President Donald Trump‘s cancellation of his summit with Kim Jong Un — adding that the North Korean leader may have “met his match” in the U.S. president.

In an interview with Dana Bash, Clapper spoke on the letter Trump sent to Kim declaring the cancellation of a planned summit between the two leaders, originally slated for June 12. Nonetheless, Trump said on Sunday that the meeting could be back on.

“I support the letter that President Trump sent to Kim Jong Un,” Clapper said. “I think it was a good thing to do.”

After describing North Korea’s typical way of dealing with the U.S. — “two steps forward, one step back” — Clapper added:

“In some ways, Kim Jong Un may have met his match here with our very unconventional president.”

The retired lieutenant general, who has faced Trump’s ire in recent weeks (the president derided him as a “lying machine”), went on to argue that establishing “the apparatus for communicating” would “be a real plus for the summit.”

He explained:

And by that, I mean establishing interests sections in both Washington and Pyongyang. What this means is a diplomatic presence below the level of a full embassy, much as we did in Havana, Cuba, for decades. This would be reciprocal, would facilitate dialogue, would gain a lot more insight and understanding about what is going on in North Korea, would promote information flow into North Korea, and, importantly, would give the North Koreans a measure of security. And if they could agree to tone down the rhetoric and use that conduit instead, that would be an improvement.

Bash asked Clapper if going forward with the summit without establishing an agreement is worthwhile.

“Having gone this far, there’s value in meeting and greeting, gripping and grinning and just establishing a rapport,” Clapper replied. “Yes, I think it would be important to have the summit.”

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]