The leader of the world’s top nuclear watchdog threw his support behind a potential meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying “it’s very important that they meet.”
“Leaders need to see each other,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told The Washington Post in an interview on Wednesday at the Stimson Center.
The endorsement of a meeting follows Trump’s remarks last week that he planned to meet the isolated strongman later this year despite pushback from critics who argue Kim should not be given the privilege of a leader-level meeting.
“The fact that I get along with him — that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” Trump told reporters last week. “He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons.”
Grossi, one of the world’s most respected arms control experts, backed the case for dialogue, saying Kim’s reputation as a human rights abuser and autocrat shouldn’t preclude engagement.
Grossi held up the IAEA’s effort to broker agreements between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as an example.
“People say, ‘How can you be shaking hands with this?’ Shaking hands is what diplomacy is for,” Grossi said. “And then, after the handshake, there is hopefully a conversation, and in that conversation, which should be cordial and respectful, you are trying to get something done.”
Grossi is also seeking to become the next secretary general of the United Nations in a highly competitive selection process that gives veto power to permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, which includes the United States.
Eight candidates have been nominated so far and five are women. Many U.N. members are arguing that it’s time for a woman to lead the world body.
Grossi made his pitch for the job, saying, “I’m the only one in the race that is dealing with real peace and security issues and has been working with all the major players and other countries on this.”
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