President Donald Trump did not believe US intelligence officials, who tried to persuade him that North Korea was capable of hitting the US territory with ballistic missiles, because Russian President Vladimir Putin convinced him that Pyongyang did not have such missiles, Andrew McCabe, who served as FBI acting director from May to August 2017, told the CBS News broadcaster
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th February, 2019) US President Donald Trump did not believe US intelligence officials, who tried to persuade him that North Korea was capable of hitting the US territory with ballistic missiles, because Russian President Vladimir Putin convinced him that Pyongyang did not have such missiles, Andrew McCabe, who served as FBI acting director from May to August 2017, told the CBS news broadcaster.
"The president said he did not believe that the North Koreans had the capability to hit us here with ballistic missiles in the United States. And he did not believe that because President Putin had told him they did not. President Putin had told him that the North Koreans don't actually have those missiles," McCabe said in an interview.
US intelligence officials argued that that did not correspond to any intelligence information, McCabe noted. "I don't care. I believe Putin," Trump replied then, according to the ex-FBI chief.
Trump's complete disbelief and his unwillingness to learn the true state of affairs were "shocking," McCabe concluded.
The agreements on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula were reached at the first ever summit of US and North Korean leaders in Singapore in June. The second meeting of Trump and Kim Jong Un is planned for February 27-28 and will be held in Vietnam's Hanoi.
