US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, 18 April, said that he hoped an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would be successful after a recent visit to Pyongyang by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, but warned he would call it off if he did not think it would produce results.
Trump told a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that his campaign of “maximum pressure” on North Korea would continue until Pyongyang gave up its nuclear weapons.
He also said Washington was negotiating for the release of three Americans held by North Korea and there was “a good chance of doing it.” He did not answer a reporter’s question as to whether that would be a condition for going ahead with the summit.
Stating that he was hopeful for a “successful meeting” with Kim Jong Un, he added:
If I think that it’s a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we’re not going to go. If the meeting when I’m there is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting.Donald Trump, US President
Trump said earlier that Pompeo, one of his most trusted advisers and his pick to be the next US secretary of state, formed a “good relationship” with Kim when he became the first US official known to have met the North Korean leader.
US officials said Pompeo met Kim when he visited Pyongyang over the Easter weekend, which ran from 31 March to 2 April, to lay the groundwork for the planned summit, in which Trump hopes to persuade North Korea to abandon development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States.
A senior administration official said Pompeo brought up the case of the three American prisoners with Kim in North Korea and that the United States was hopeful for their release.
Pompeo’s visit provided the strongest sign yet of Trump’s willingness to become the first serving US president to meet a North Korean leader.
Trump said on Tuesday he believed there was a lot of goodwill in the diplomatic push, which he has said could take place in late May or early June.
Trump said on Tuesday he backed efforts between North and South Korea aimed at ending the state of war.
Such discussions between the two Koreas, and between North Korea and the United States, would have been unthinkable last year.
(This article has been published in association with Reuters)
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