North Korea Returning Apparent Remains Of U.S. Troops.
SCIUTTO: Today, the White House announced that Vice President Mike Pence will be in Hawaii on Wednesday to receive the remains of U.S. service members killed during the Korean War. North Korea is returning these remains as part of an agreement President Trump made with Kim Jong-un during their summit in Singapore. CNN's Will Ripley joins us now live from Seoul, South Korea. Are the North Koreans -- is there any evidence, Will, that the North Koreans are honoring the other parts of the agreement, specifically on giving up their nuclear program?</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At this point, you know, you have seen some signs, Jim, of North Korea dismantling some of its older, less relevant weapons facilities while upgrading the kind of facilities that are producing missiles that could pose a threat to the United States. And what we saw here in South Korea, the first repatriation of Korean war remains in more than a decade, Trump administration is touting as a step in the right directions. Well, let's be honest here, it's a very small step down a very long and difficult road when it comes to getting North Korea to give up their nukes.</s>RIPLEY: Just one week after his Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, President Trump made this triumphant announcement.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We got back our great fallen heroes, their remains. In fact, today, already 200 have been sent back.</s>RIPLEY: But it took five more weeks for just 55 sets of remains to arrive at South Korea's Osan Air Base, Friday, on the anniversary of the Korean War armistice. Pyongyang did not even approve the mission until the final hours, keeping U.S. officials guessing.</s>TRUMP: And I want to thank Chairman Kim for keeping his word.</s>RIPLEY: But few expected this relatively simple confidence-building measure would take more than six weeks. Raising serious questions about the far more complex, and far more contentious negotiations over denuclearization.</s>MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The North Koreans understand --</s>RIPLEY: This week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Senate Intelligence Committee: North Korea is still producing fuel for nuclear weapons. Pompeo, fresh off a disappointing trip to Pyongyang, little if any progress on key issues. And a widely perceived snub by Kim Jong-un, who did not meet with him. The U.S. was later criticized by North Korea for making what they called gangster-like demands. In May, North Korean officials took CNN to what they claimed was the destruction of this nuclear test site. These new images show they may also be dismantling a satellite launching station. But U.S. intelligence agencies believe North Korea is upgrading other key weapons facilities, including a ballistic missile plant and nuclear reactor. Their assessment: Kim Jong-un has no plans to give us his nukes any time soon.</s>SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: They have not done another nuclear test, so that's a positive. They haven't done another ballistic missile test, that's a positive. North Korea is playing its normal game in which it agreed to a concept of its own definition of denuclearization, whatever that means. And then freezes activity to let the heat go down.</s>RIPLEY: An official telling CNN this week, North Korea wants sanctions relief and a peace treaty, formally ending the Korean War, or Kim Jong-un may consider walking away from the talks, emboldened by his increasingly friendly relationship with traditional allies, Russia and China. Both could make it nearly impossible for the U.S. to continue its maximum pressure campaign, even if negotiations with North Korea break down.</s>RIPLEY: So, here we are, more than six weeks after the summit in Singapore. There's still no timetable for denuclearization, no transparency from the North Koreans about how many warheads they possess, where they're producing nuclear fuel, where they're hiding their warheads. All of those things the United States said they need, they still don't have. What they do have tonight, those 55 set of Korean War remains that took significantly longer to return than anyone in the administration would have expected.</s>SCIUTTO: And of course, the president said that the North Korean nuclear threat was over a number of weeks ago. Will Ripley in South Korea, thanks very much. Coming up, the president denies a claim by his former fixer and lawyer, Michael Cohen, that candidate Trump knew ahead of time about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. Where is this investigation now headed?