Giuliani: Kim Jong Un 'got back on his hands and knees and begged' Trump for summit to take place

TEL AVIV, Israel -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "begged" President Donald Trump to reschedule their summit meeting after Trump abruptly canceled it last month, Trump's personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani said Wednesday.

Trump had canceled the now-rescheduled June 12 meeting with Kim after statements from North Korea in May that called US Vice President Mike Pence a "political dummy" and said Pyongyang was ready for a nuclear showdown with Washington if dialogue failed.

"We said we're not going to have a summit under those circumstances," Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, told a business conference in Tel Aviv, Israel.

"Well, Kim Jong Un got back on his hands and knees and begged for it, which is exactly the position you want to put him in," Giuliani said.

There was no immediate reaction from Pyongyang to the comments from Giuliani, who is not a member of the Trump administration but is the president's lawyer in the special counsel investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

(In an interview later with The Associated Press, Giuliani rejected suggestions that such comments might spoil the summit meeting, saying that Kim must understand that the United States is in a position of strength. “It is pointing out that the president is the stronger figure,” Giuliani was quoted as saying by the AP. “And you’re not going to have useful negotiations unless he accepts that.”)