Former US President Jimmy Carter is ready to go to North Korea to ease tensions

Former President Carter said he is willing to travel to Pyongyang on behalf of the Trump administration to ease the current tensions.

Former US President Jimmy Carter. Photo: Reuters.

"I will go," 93-year-old former US President Jimmy Carter affirmed in an interview today, when the New York Times reporterasked if it was time for the US to undertake a diplomatic mission to North Korea and whether he would do so for President Donald Trump.

Former President Carter said he spoke with GeneralHR McMaster, President Trump's national security adviser, but has so far not received a positive response."I told him I was available if they needed me," Mr. Carter stressed.

When reporters shared that many administration officials felt worried about the war of words between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Mr. Carter said: "Me too."

"They want to protect their regime. And we overestimate China's influence on North Korea, especially on Kim," the 93-year-old former president commented.

"The late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il once visited China and was very close to Beijing," Mr. Carter emphasized.According to him, Kim Jong-un "has never visited China" so "gbetween them, there is no relationship at all".

Describing the North Korean leader as "unpredictable", the former US president feared that Mr Kim Jong-un might think the US would take action against him and would take preemptive measures to prevent it.

"In my opinion, he now possesses advanced nuclear weapons that can destroy the Korean peninsula and Japan, and some of our overseas territories in the Pacific, perhaps even the American mainland," Mr. Carter warned.

In 1994, bDespite objections from then-president Bill Clinton, Carter traveled to Pyongyang and reached an agreement with North Korean leader Kim Il-sung to enter multilateral talks on the country's nuclear program.

According to VNE