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"I
would go, yes," Carter, 93, told the Times when he was asked in
an interview at his ranch house in Plains, Georgia whether it
was time for another diplomatic mission and whether he would do
so for President Trump.
Carter, a Democrat who was president from 1977 to 1981, said he
had spoken to Trump's National Security Adviser Lt.-Gen. H. R.
McMaster, who is a friend, but so far has gotten a negative
response.
"I told him that I was available if they ever need me,” the
Times quoted Carter as saying.
Told that some in Washington were made nervous by Trump and
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's war of words, Carter said "I'm
afraid, too, of a situation."
"They want to save their regime. And we greatly overestimate
China’s influence on North Korea. Particularly to Kim," who,
Carter added, has "never, so far as I know, been to China.""And
they have no relationship. Kim Jong-il did go to China and was
very close to them."
Describing the North Korean leader as "unpredictable," Carter
worried that if Kim thinks Trump will act against him, he could
do something pre-emptive, the Times reported.
"I think he's now got advanced nuclear weaponry that can destroy
the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and some of our outlying
territories in the Pacific, maybe even our mainland," Carter
said.
In the mid 1990s, Carter traveled to Pyongyang over the
objections of President Bill Clinton, the Times report said, and
struck a deal with Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the current
leader.
(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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