Trump tempers expectations of North Korea summit in Moon meeting

South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Photo: Jeon Han/Korea.net

May 22 (UPI) — Hosting South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump tempered expectations for his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump told reporters he believes Kim is serious about denuclearization, but added the June 12 meeting may not happen if certain conditions aren’t met.

“It may not work out for June 12,” Trump said.

North Korea threatened last week to back out of the summit in Singapore because of military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea. On Tuesday, Pyongyang welcomed foreign reporters to observe the dismantlement of its Punggye-ri nuclear testing site.

Trump said Tuesday the summit with Kim would be good for North Korea, adding it “has the chance to be a great, great meeting for North Korea and a great meeting for the world.”

“North Korea has a chance to be a great country and it can’t be a country under these circumstances they are living right now … I think they should seize the opportunity,” he added.

Trump and Moon were expected to meet for about 30 minutes and also talk about trade, but the president said he expected North Korean diplomacy to dominate the agenda.

Moon addressed skepticism that the Trump-Kim summit and efforts to denuclearize North Korea would fail, expressing confidence in Trump’s efforts.

“I don’t think there will be positive developments in history if we just assume that because it all failed in the past, it will fail again. There have been many agreements between the United States and North Korea previously, but this will be the first time that there will be an agreement between the leaders. …

“I have every confidence that President Trump will be able to achieve an historic feat of making the upcoming U.S.-North Korea summit successful and end the Korean War … achieve the denuclearization of North Korea, establish a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula and also normalize relations between the United States and North Korea,” Moon said.

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