i'm speaking with wendy sherman, the lead u.s. negotiator on the iran deal for president obama and the special north korea adviser under the clinton administration. and she joined me from london. wendy sherman, welcome to the program. >> great to be here. thank you, christiane. >> so from a purely negotiating and negotiator's point of view, with your experience in both north korea and iran on these issues, what are the pros and cons, the possible pitfalls or the opportunities of a presidential meeting even before goerks negotiations are under way? >> it's quite extraordinary in the annals of diplomacy. nonetheless i'm glad that we're getting into talks even if we start off with a meeting and not formal negotiations because talk is certainly better than war and we need to give diplomacy a chance. war should be the last resort, not the first. i think the president has to be extraordinarily well prepared. and i know he likes to shoot from the hip and has tremendous confidence in his ability as does kim jong-un. if there was ever a sy

david corn, ed price and ambassador wendy sherman will join us. >>> and a new report ties the hacking to a russian military officer. one who was in contact with an associate of the trump campaign. . i'm your phone, stuck down here between your seat and your console, playing a little hide-n-seek. cold... warmer... warmer... ah boiling. jackpot. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, you could be picking up these charges yourself. so get allstate, where agents help keep you protected from mayhem... ...like me. mayhem is everywhere. are you in good hands? ♪ with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. ♪ >>> john boltons has not limited his dangerous thinking to bombing north korea and bombing iran after ripping up the iran deal. he's full of dangerous ideas in 2013 he appeared in a propaganda video in russia speaking to the russian people, it was created by a russian group called the right to bear arms it was founded by a person close to vladimir putin who is also close with the national rifle association. here he is trying to open up new markets

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wendy sherman negotiated with kim's father in 2000. >> this is an incredibly difficult negotiation for the president, for anyone, for that matter, and he will need a very seasoned team that understands all the technical issues here. >> reporter: but president trump has no u.s. ambassador in south korea. his top korea expert just quit in frustration, and mr. trump blindsided his secretary of state agreeing to the talks only hours after rex tillerson dismissed the idea. >> we're a long ways from negotiations. i think we just need to be very clear-eyed and realistic about it. >> reporter: the u.s. is now scrambling, setting up a high stakes meeting without a playbook and reaching out to north korea through back channels to make sure kim is talking about giving up his nuclear weapons as south korea says. lester? >> andrea mitchell tonight, thank you. >>> there are new revelations in the scandal surrounding president trump's alleged affair with an adult film actress. tonight nbc news has learned more about the alleged hush money payment made by the president's personal attorney. nbc news ch

sherman. to your point, this is what she said about it when it comes to these vital negotiations. >> this is very concerning, and quite frankly all of the posts aren't filled at treasury, or the pentagon, or energy, or in our intelligence community. all of which will be elements of these -- this negotiation. you have to have a strong interagency system to pull this off. you have to actually have meetings in the situation room to work out all the pieces of the policy. this is an enormous undertaking, literally in the iran negotiation there were hundreds of people in the u.s. government who were engaged, let alone hundreds in everyone else's government who were involved. >> victoria nuland, does that concern you? is there enough time to get that kind of operation up to speed? >> well, again, we had a secretary who didn't seem to be preparing even though he favored talks. now we have a secretary who has -- or we will have a secretary, if mike pompeo is confirmed, who has the president's ear. what

. >> this is what one of your former colleagues, former negotiator, wendy sherman told me about kim jong un. >> i think his objectives are several. one, he is in the driver's seat at the moment. he has been able to get the president of the united states, the most powerful leader in the world, to sit in the same room with him as if he is an equal. so he has already achieved a major objective from his perspective. he ultimately wants to reunify the koreas but under north korean leadership, which is certainly not something the united states is going to agree to. i certainly hope not. and he wants to hold on to his nuclear weapons because he does not trust the united states. >> so is that a good recipe for an agreement? >> well, first of all, there's no question this is a big one for kim jong-un. if you look at this all as a competition between him and his father, between him and his grandfather, he's succeeded where neither his father nor his grandfather were ever able to have a meeting with a sitting u.s. president. so that's a big step. he's got that. the question is, is he going to try t

joining us now ambassador wendy sherman, former u.s. under secretary of state for political affairs and a msnbc global affairs contributor. on this statement tonight issued by the press secretary supporting the united kingdom's finding in this incident with russia, is it customary for that statement to be made by the press secretary in the name of the press secretary? and for us to have absolute silence from the president of the united states? >> it is very unusual in these circumstances, lawrence. i just came back from brussels and london. i can't tell you what a surreal experience it is to be in the middle of meetings and as people are going to sleep you hear that the president of the united states has decided on impulse to have a summit with kim jong-un. and a couple days later as the british are completely overwhelmed with this assassination outside of london by clearly a russian agent of some sort with a chemical weapon just completely obsessed with and concerned with it, we have radio silence from the white house. from the preside

ask wendy sherman, madeleine albright, anyone who worked in the administration about what it's like when the ruling dynasty gives its word. to make this work, we will need a durable framework that .verybody knows knows what our strategic, what our strategic choices are and what we are looking for. now, i hope we are there. i'm not going to trash the announcement last night. it might lead to something, but we've been back and forth on whether we would talk to the north koreans at all. sanctions cannot be turned on off instantly, it requires a lot of pushing. so it's a question mark. on russia, i think the gap between professional complements and the implementation of sanctions and questions about the policy is clear. the russia sanctions have been implemented by the trump administration over the past administration over the past year in a credible fashion. if you follow the details of treasury sections come up -- sanctions, maintenance, tinkering with russia sanctions, they've been good. actually pretty clever. the administration prepares section 241 of the so-called kremlin report by all

. >> wendy sherman, thank you all so much. and another big issue front and center, british prime minister accusing russia attempting to kill a russian spy and his daughter with a nerve agent. >> onto the, they will dispel 23 russian diplomats identified as undeclared in till against officers. they have just one week to leave. this will be the single biggest expulsion over 30 years and reflect the fact that the russian state has acted against our country. >> may said that the u.n. security council will now hold an emergency center. later today to talk about the nerve agent attack and the u.k. will push for robust international response. nbc kerr joins me from london. what next will they do russian has not given any information as demanded in response to accusations? >> well, you no he, it'sknow, i question, because it suggests britain hasn't been able to do that much. expelling 23 russian diplomats tit for tat where they will expel some. it is a significant act in the sense that what britt tain effectually does it cuts off thei