US President Donald Trump on Friday said that he may “hold” the recently agreed trade deal with South Korea in an effort to gain leverage over his scheduled meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

“I may hold it up till after a deal is made with North Korea,” he said in his address on infrastructure in Ohio.

 This week, Trump said, his administration “secured a wonderful (trade) deal” with South Korea.  “We were in a deal that was a horror show. It was going to produce 2,00,000 jobs. And it did — for them,” he said amid laughter from the audience. “That was a Hillary Clinton special, I hate to say. ‘This will produce 2,00,000 jobs’. She was right. But it was for them, it wasn’t for us,” Trump said.

The new trade deal agreed upon is “going to level the playing field on steel and cars and trucks coming into this country”, said the US President as he told the audience that he might hold it till he has a deal with North Korea.

“Does everybody understand thatIJ You know why, rightIJ You know whyIJ Because it’s a very strong card. And I want to make sure everyone is treated fairly. And were moving along very nicely with North Korea. We’ll see what happens,” he said.

“Certainly, the rhetoric has calmed down just a little bit, wouldn’t you sayIJ” Trump asked the audience referring to the sudden stopping of rhetoric from North Korea.

Trump has accepted an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a meeting in May.

“We’ll see how it all turns out. Maybe it’ll be good and maybe it won’t. And if it’s no good, we’re walking. And if it’s good, we will embrace it. But it’s going to be very interesting over the next period of time. And South Korea has been wonderful. But we’ll probably hold that deal up for a little while, see how it all plays out,” Trump said.