President Donald Trump says he won’t impose any additional sanctions on North Korea for the time being.
The Latest on President Donald Trump and North Korea (all times local):
3:15 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he won’t impose any additional sanctions on North Korea for the time being.
Trump says « we had hundreds of new sanctions ready to go. » But he says he won’t impose them « until the talks break down. »
The president is referencing ongoing discussions with North Korea in preparation for a June 12 summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump announced Friday after meeting with a top aide to Kim that the summit is back on. He had announced just last week that he was canceling the meeting.
Speaking after the Oval Office meeting, the president said he looks forward to the day when he can « take the sanctions off » North Korea.
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3 p.m.
President Donald Trump says his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (kim jawng oon) is back on for June 12.
Trump says after an Oval Office meeting Friday with North Korea’s Kim Yong Chol that he’d be making a mistake not to go forward with the on-again, off-again nuclear summit in Singapore.
Trump says his meeting with the most senior North Korean to visit the White House in 18 years lasted longer than expected. He said it « went very well. »
Trump says his June 12 meeting will be « a beginning. »
He says, « The process will begin on June 12 in Singapore. »
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2:47 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he has yet to read the letter brought to the White House by a top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (kim jawng oon).
Trump says he didn’t open the letter. He says Kim Yong Chol — the North Korean official — said Trump could read the letter later.
Trump and Kim spent more than an hour in the Oval Office on Friday discussing issues in the run-up to a June 12 summit in Singapore between Trump and Kim Jong Un.
Trump also says he may at some point make public an earlier letter he received from Kim Jong Un.
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2:40 p.m.
A top North Korean official has departed the White House after meeting with President Donald Trump amid negotiations over a high-stakes summit.
Kim Yong Chol spent more than an hour in the Oval Office where he was spotted shaking hands with the president. He was expected to deliver a letter from Kim Jong Un (kim jawng oon), the North Korean dictator, to Trump.
After the meeting, Trump and Kim Yong Chol posed for photos on the White House lawn.
Kim is the most senior North Korean visitor to the United States since Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok visited Washington in 2000 to meet President Bill Clinton.
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1:14 p.m.
An aide to Kim Jong Un has arrived at the White House, becoming the highest-ranking North Korean official to visit in 18 years.
Kim Yong Chol was greeted Friday by White House chief of staff John Kelly, who brought him inside the White House to meet President Donald Trump.
Kim is expected to president a letter from Kim Jong Un (kim jawng oon), the North Korean dictator, to Trump.
The letter comes as the two countries work to revive a Trump-Kim summit on June 12 in Singapore.
Kim Yong Chol is the most senior North Korean visitor to the United States since Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok visited Washington in 2000 to meet President Bill Clinton.
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12:28 a.m.
A top aide to Kim Jong Un will make a rare visit to Washington Friday to hand a letter from the North Korean leader to President Donald Trump. That from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
He reported « good progress » is being made in talks between the two sides to revive an on-again, off-again nuclear summit. Pompeo spoke to reporters at a news conference in New York after meeting Thursday with former North Korean military intelligence chief Kim Yong Chol.
He would not say that the summit is a definite go for Singapore on June 12, and could not say if that decision would be made after Trump reads Kim Jong Un’s letter.
