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NY Times Reporter: Trump Deserves 'Enormous Credit' for North Korea Breakthrough

March 6, 2018

New York Times national security reporter and CNN contributor David Sanger gave President Donald Trump credit on Tuesday for a recent breakthrough in North Korea talks.

CNN's Alisyn Camerota pushed Sanger on the credit Trump is due after South Korea announced Tuesday it would be holding its first summit with North Korea in more than a decade in late April. North Korea also vowed to halt nuclear and missile tests while talking with the United States and its souther neighbor. The announcement came after a senior delegation returned from a visit to the North where they met leader Kim Jong Un.

"But David, in terms of giving President Trump the credit, don't you need to rewind the tape back farther than the Olympics?" she asked. Camerota's reference to the 2018 Winter Olympic games held in South Korea was to acknowledge it was a time viewed by many as a major step forward in improving relations between the two Koreas.

Camerota referenced that during Trump's presidential transition period, he was already talking about sitting down and negotiating with Kim.

Sanger agreed while also pointing to Trump's imposition of "truly deep sanctions, which the U.S. stepped out to enforce."

The commitment to sanctions, he argued, gave Kim "additional motivation to realize that he had to get into some talks that would relieve that pressure."

"I think President Trump deserves enormous credit for ratcheting up that pressure and making sure those sanctions were real. There was no reason the Obama administration couldn't have done that, and they didn't," he said.