Did not pay North Koreans for release of prisoners: Trump

May 11, 2018 08:21

The United States did not pay any money to the North Koreans for the release of its citizens held as a prisoners, US President Donald Trump said as he slammed the previous Obama administration for paying $1.8 billion in cash after the Iranian nuclear deal.

"North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did a great service to himself and to his country by doing this. But those hostages came out with respect, we didn't pay for them," he said.

"We are going to set the table. We are going to make a great deal, for the world, for North Korea, for South Korea, for Japan, for China," he added.

The Obama administration had paid $1.8 billion for hostages, Trump claimed in an apparent reference to a January 2016 deal between the US and Iran in which the United States agreed to pay $1.7 billion to settle a case related to the sale of military equipment before the Iranian revolution. Simultaneously, Iran had released five American prisoners. The then Obama White House strongly refuted reports that it was a ransom.

Trump said his meeting with Kim Jong-un would be a great success.

"I think it's going to be a very big success. But my attitude is: And if it isn't, it isn't," he told his supporters.

"You have to have that because you don't know. We're not going to walk into an Iran deal," Trump added.

-- PTI

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