Jimmy Carter says he’d go to North Korea to help ease tensions

Jimmy Carter said he "would go" to North Korea as an emissary for President Donald Trump, the former president told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

In a wide-ranging interview that covered topics such as the relationship between Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin, Carter told Dowd he was eager to partner with the president on a diplomatic mission to North Korea.

Carter told Dowd he would be willing to go to North Korea amid the ongoing tensions over nuclear weapons.

"I would go, yes," he said.

Carter, 93, said he has talked with Trump's national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, about his intentions but was given "a negative response."

"I told him that I was available if they ever need me," he said.

It would not be the first time Carter collaborated with a president or traveled to North Korea in a diplomatic mission. In 2010, he negotiated the release of an imprisoned U.S. citizen.

Carter also flew to North Korea in 1994 over the objections of President Bill Clinton and made a deal with Kim Il-sung to help prevent a nuclear confrontation.

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