Former President Jimmy Carter has reportedly offered to travel to North Korea if the Trump administration asks for his assistance in breaking the stalled nuclear talks.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who met Mr. Carter on Thursday in Atlanta, told Politico of the offer.
According to Mr. Khanna, the man who in 1994 became the first former U.S. president to visit North Korea and brokered a nuclear deal with Kim Il-sung, is “perhaps the only person in the nation” who can break the deadlock.
The two men had a “step-by-step plan to get to the point of peace and work toward denuclearization,’’ Mr. Khanna told Politico.
Kim Il-sung is the grandfather of current dictator Kim Jong-un and the revered founder of North Korea, which gives Mr. Carter a “weight of history” with the North Koreans, the congressman told Politico.
That 1994 agreement was widely criticized for effectively paving the way for the current nuclear standoff and the scores of missile and weapons tests in the past decade.
Politico reported that the 94-year-old former president no longer travels but told Mr. Khanna that he would make an exception for North Korea if asked by the current president.
President Trump has twice met with Kim Jong-un, but neither neutral-site summit resulted in an agreement on denuclearizing North Korea, the more recent gathering in Vietnam last month breaking up over sanctions relief for Pyongyang.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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