NEW YORK: Rudy Giu­liani, US President Donald Trump’s lawyer, said on Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un got down “on his hands and knees and begged” for the summit in Singapore to be held after Mr Trump cancelled it last month. The former New York mayor is currently on a visit to Israel.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Giu­liani, counselled a similar approach to negotiations with Palestinian officials.

“They (North Korea) also said they were going to go to nuclear war with us, they were going to defeat us in a nuclear war,” Giuliani said. “We said we’re not going to have a summit under those circumstances.”

After Trump cancelled the meeting, Giuliani recalled: “Well, Kim Jong Un got back on his hands and knees and begged for it, which is exactly the position you want to put him in.”

Giuliani also said North Korea wanted to denuclearise, “but they do want probably much too long a timetable for that”.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2018