President Trump talked about the necessity of negotiating with North Korea in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer in November 1999: Trump said if the U.S. doesn't deal with North Korea now that we'll "be in awfully big trouble" in five years when they have nuclear missiles.



"You go in, you start negotiating," he said. "And if you don't stop them from doing it, will have to take rather drastic actions, because if you don't talk them now, you are going to be in awfully big trouble in five years from now, when they have more missiles than we do."



"We're a bunch of saps," he added.











Trump said if "spoken to correctly," that North Korea "will play ball."



"If spoken to correctly, correctly, they will play ball. Look on another front what happened recently, where Clinton has asked our trade, our so-called trade partners to come so we can renegotiate some fairness into trade. Right? They don't show up. They say, we're not coming," he said.





TRUMP: North Korea is totally out of control. And would you rather have a very, very serious chat with them now and if necessary you might have to do something fairly drastic? Or would you rather have to go after them in five years, when they have more nuclear warheads and missiles than we do?



You go in, you start negotiating. And if you don't stop them from doing it, will have to take rather drastic actions, because if you don't talk them now, you are going to be in awfully big trouble in five years from now, when they have more missiles than we do. We're a bunch of saps.



BLITZER: What if the North Koreans don't play ball, develop a nuclear capability, go forward with their missile development? Does the United States act unilaterally?



TRUMP: Excuse me.



If spoken to correctly, correctly, they will play ball. Look on another front what happened recently, where Clinton has asked our trade, our so-called trade partners to come so we can renegotiate some fairness into trade. Right? They don't show up. They say, we're not coming.



Why would Germany show up? Why would France show up? Why would Japan show up? They have been ripping up off for years, so why would they come here? It's ridiculous.