Will walk out if meeting with Kim doesn't go well: Trump

April 19, 2018 08:17

United States President Donald Trump has expressed optimism about his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, but said he'd be willing to walk out if the meeting fails to meet his expectation.

Trump said he will be meeting with Kim Jong-un in the coming weeks to discuss the de-nuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

"If we don't think it's going to be successful.. we won't have it. We won't have it. If I think it's a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we are not going to go," Trump told reporters during a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

"If the meeting, when I'm there is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting and will continue what we are doing or whatever it is that we'll continue, but something will happen," Trump said a day after he told reporters that he is likely to meet Kim Jong-un in June or before that.

Officials from the two countries are looking at five different venues for the meeting. None of them are in the US.

"Hopefully, that meeting will be a great success and we're looking forward to it," Trump said, adding that it would be tremendous for the world if the meeting went well.

Trump expressed hope that the Korean Peninsula could live together "in safety, prosperity, and peace" following a series of meetings between North Korea and South Korea.

"This is the destiny of the Korean people, who deserve and have gone through so much over the years. We hope it all works it and we'll be trying very hard," he added.

Trump said the release of three American prisoners in North Korea would be among the topics of his discussion with Kim.

The US president pat himself on the back over North Korea and said his administration had achieved what his predecessors couldn't.

"..for many years they have been talking to North Korea and nothing has happened. This should have been taken care of by past administrations when they were not nearly so far along. But we put unbelievably powerful sanctions on, and many other things," said Trump.

He praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for co-operating with him on North Korea. -- PTI

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