President Trump on Friday confirmed that he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un will meet later this month in Singapore as originally planned.
“We’ll be meeting on June 12th in Singapore,” the president announced after Kim Yong Chol, a top aide to Kim Jong Un, left the White House after delivering a note to the president from the North’s leader.
“It went very well,” Trump said of the meeting, which was also attended by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“It’s really a get-to-know-you kind of a situation. We’ve gotten to know their people very well,” he said, adding that more meetings would likely follow.
“I never said it goes in one meeting. I think it’s going to be a process, but the relationships are building and that’s a very positive,” he said.
Asked about the North’s willingness to abandon their nuclear weapons program, Trump said Pyongyang was open to the idea.
“Well, I think they want to do that. I know they want to do that. They want other things along the line. They want to develop as a country. That’s going to happen, I have no doubt,” the president said.
Kim Yong Chol was the most senior North Korean to visit the White House in 18 years, a highly symbolic sign of easing tensions after fears of war escalated amid North Korean nuclear and missile tests last year.
“I think you’re going to have a very positive result in the end,” the president.
“We’re going to start a process,” he said. “We will see what we will see.”
Trump said he did not bring up the rogue regime’s murderous human rights record.
Trump joked about the letter the North delivered but would not disclose its contents.
“Don’t forget, this was a meeting where a letter was given to me [from] Kim Jong Un and that letter was a very nice letter. Oh, would you like to see what was in that letter? How much? How much? How much?” he said.
“It was a very interesting letter. At some point it may be appropriate, I’ll be able to give it to you maybe, you’ll be able to see it and maybe fairly soon. But really this was a letter presentation that ended up being a two-hour conversation.”
He later said he had not yet opened the letter.
Trump canceled the meeting last month following bellicose talk from the North.