President Trump on Wednesday said he’s optimistic for his upcoming planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but added that he’d be unafraid…
President Trump on Wednesday said he’s optimistic for his upcoming planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but added that he’d be unafraid to walk out if conditions aren’t beneficial to the U. S.
“We’ve never been in a position like this with that regime, and I hope to have a very successful meeting,” Trump said in Florida during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“If we don’t think it’s going to be successful, Mark, we won’t have it. If I think that it’s a meeting that’s not going to be fruitful. I won’t go. If the meeting when I’m there is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave,” he told reporter Mark Landler of The New York Times.
Trump is expected to meet with Kim in the coming months, potentially becoming the first U. S. president to sit down with a leader of North Korea. A date and location for the meeting has not been determined.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Trump’s nominee to be the next secretary of State, visited North Korea over Easter weekend and met with Kim amid ongoing tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
Trump said those talks went “very well.”
The U. S. and North Korea had a testy relationship for much of Trump’s administration, with the president occasionally taunting Kim over his arsenal and the size of his «nuclear button.»
However, tensions have calmed since the new year, with North Korea expressing a willingness to engage with South Korea and possibly put an official end to the Korean War.
