Trump says hopes to meet N.Korea's Kim in January or February
Published Dec 2, 2018 09:01 pm
By Agence France-Presse
US President Donald Trump said Saturday he hoped to organize a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in early 2019, perhaps as soon as January or February.
US President Donald Trump says he wants to hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in early 2019 (AFP / MANILA BULLETIN)
Trump told reporters traveling home to Washington with him aboard Air Force One from Argentina that "three sites" were in consideration for the meeting, a follow-up to their historic summit in Singapore in June.
"I think we're going to do one fairly (soon) -- you know, into January, February, I think," said Trump, who had been in Buenos Aires for the Group of 20 summit.
"We're getting along very well. We have a good relationship."
In the Argentine capital, Trump held separate bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday that primarily focused on trade, but the US leader said Xi he had agreed to work with him "100 percent" on North Korea.
When asked Saturday if he would ever host the North Korean leader in the United States, Trump replied: "At some point, yeah."
In June, Trump and Kim opened up a face-to-face dialogue after months of trading military threats and pointed barbs.
The two leaders signed a vaguely worded document on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but progress has since stalled as Washington and Pyongyang spar over the meaning of the document.
North Korea has taken few concrete steps to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to meet with a top North Korean official in early November, but the meeting was abruptly put off, with Pyongyang insisting that Washington ease sanctions.
On Friday, Trump discussed the situation with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
Korea Summit Press Pool/AFP/File / Korea Summit Press Pool North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in have met three times in 2018 -- the first was in April at the truce village of Panmunjom but they first shook hands at the Military Demarcation Line dividing their nations
The pair "reaffirmed their commitment to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization" of North Korea, Trump's spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
They agreed on the need for "maintaining vigorous enforcement of existing sanctions to ensure the DPRK understands that denuclearization is the only path," Sanders said, using the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
US President Donald Trump says he wants to hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in early 2019 (AFP / MANILA BULLETIN)
Trump told reporters traveling home to Washington with him aboard Air Force One from Argentina that "three sites" were in consideration for the meeting, a follow-up to their historic summit in Singapore in June.
"I think we're going to do one fairly (soon) -- you know, into January, February, I think," said Trump, who had been in Buenos Aires for the Group of 20 summit.
"We're getting along very well. We have a good relationship."
In the Argentine capital, Trump held separate bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday that primarily focused on trade, but the US leader said Xi he had agreed to work with him "100 percent" on North Korea.
When asked Saturday if he would ever host the North Korean leader in the United States, Trump replied: "At some point, yeah."
In June, Trump and Kim opened up a face-to-face dialogue after months of trading military threats and pointed barbs.
The two leaders signed a vaguely worded document on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but progress has since stalled as Washington and Pyongyang spar over the meaning of the document.
North Korea has taken few concrete steps to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to meet with a top North Korean official in early November, but the meeting was abruptly put off, with Pyongyang insisting that Washington ease sanctions.
On Friday, Trump discussed the situation with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
Korea Summit Press Pool/AFP/File / Korea Summit Press Pool North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in have met three times in 2018 -- the first was in April at the truce village of Panmunjom but they first shook hands at the Military Demarcation Line dividing their nations
The pair "reaffirmed their commitment to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization" of North Korea, Trump's spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
They agreed on the need for "maintaining vigorous enforcement of existing sanctions to ensure the DPRK understands that denuclearization is the only path," Sanders said, using the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.