Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a progressive Democrat, told Breitbart News he is supporting President Donald Trump’s efforts to broker a peace deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Khanna said he met a couple weeks ago with former President Jimmy Carter on how to help President Trump reach a denuclearization deal with North Korea, and he said Carter is willing to help Trump where he can.
“You know I met with President Carter two weeks ago right?” Khanna told Breitbart News. “We had a half hour conversation—President Carter and I are going to come out—he met with Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, and came out with a 12-point framework for how to resolve the crisis. This was in 1994. We are going to work to release that framework. I have a contact in the administration who said that President Carter is willing to be supportive of the administration’s effort, and he in fact said he would be willing to go to North Korea if the administration wanted him to as part of a team and a delegation. That I think would be very important.”
If Trump and Carter were to work together—something Khanna said he may be able to make happen, and something he would pitch Trump on should Trump take him up on his offer to meet—Khanna thinks it would be an “extraordinary measure.”
“I think it would be an extraordinary measure,” Khanna said of a Trump-Carter potential collaboration. “I’d love to discuss that with President Trump as well, about how he can involve President Carter. Regarding President Carter’s framework, Kim Jong-un’s grandfather is still revered in North Korea—if Carter goes, with maybe a bipartisan, a bipartisan delegation from Congress, Kim Jong-un is going to listen if Carter says ‘look, your grandfather came up with this agreement. Listen to the terms.’ President Carter and President Trump would get all the credit. He is the president, he will get the credit. So I hope on this, like on Yemen, he will do that too.”
Khanna, as Breitbart News previously reported, had organized a resolution among several Democrats backing Trump as he went into his second summit with Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, Vietnam. The news that he had met with Carter on the subject was part of that release, and 18 Democrats joined him in signing onto the resolution pushing for a formal end to the Korean War, which has not been formally resolved since the mid-20th century.
President Trump ended up walking away from the summit with Kim Jong-un halfway through the meetings because he could not reach a deal with the North Korean leader, but talks between Washington and Pyongyang remain ongoing.
According to Khanna, Kim Jong-un’s grandfather—the onetime leader of North Korea—had an agreement in principle with Carter from their meetings in 1994. It’s unclear what exactly they agreed to, but the elder Kim is still revered by the people of North Korea so any kind of agreement that came from him may hold weight and help Trump seal the deal here in the 21st century.