U.S. President Donald Trump, in a complete turnaround, said on Friday he would hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore in the latest twist in the high-stakes diplomacy over eliminating Pyonyang’s nuclear arms program.
Eight days after canceling the unprecedented summit, citing Pyongyang’s “open hostility,” Trump welcomed North Korea’s former intelligence chief, currently under punitive U.S. sanctions, to the White House Oval Office, afterward exchanging smiles and handshakes, patting his arm in a friendly gesture.
“Good meeting today. I think it’s a great start,” Trump said after conferring for about 90 minutes with Kim Yong Chol, who became the first North Korean official to visit the White House in 18 years and who the U.S. president called “the second most powerful man in North Korea.”
Trump said he expected an eventual “very positive result” with North Korea but dampened expectations for a breakthrough in Singapore.
“We’re not going to go in and sign something on June 12th, and we never were,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn. “We’re going to start a process. And I told them today, ‘Take your time, we can go fast, we can go slowly,’ but I think they’d like to see something happen.”
Trump said it could take several meetings to reach an agreement, but he was convinced that Kim Jong Un was committed to denuclearization. “He’d like to see it happen,” Trump said.
Reuters
