President Donald Trump said he doesn’t like the change in attitude he’s picked up from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump on Tuesday said he detected a shift after Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) met for a second time in China. Trump says he hopes China isn’t influencing Kim.
Trump and Kim are scheduled to meet on June 12 in Singapore. Trump now says the meeting could be delayed.
The US and China have been negotiating over China’s large trade imbalance with the US. Trump is also leaning on China to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
Kim had South Korean officials inform the White House that he wanted to meet with Trump, but he recently balked in the face of U.S. demands for North Korea’s complete denuclearization.
President Donald Trump said the planned Singapore summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un “may not work out for June 12” and is suggesting it could be delayed.
Trump is meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in (jah-YIHN’) on Tuesday at the White House for consultations ahead of the planned June 12 summit with Kim in Singapore.
The meeting is happening as efforts to build peace between the two Koreas have hit a setback.
North Korea pulled out of planned peace talks with South Korea last week, objecting to long-scheduled joint military exercises between the US and the Republic of Korea forces.
North Korea has also threatened to abandon the planned Trump-Kim meeting over the U.S. insistence on denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has opened talks with President Donald Trump on the US-North Korea summit, saying the “fate and the future” of the Korean Peninsula hinges on it.
Trump welcomed Moon to the White House on Tuesday as they seek to coordinate strategy for Trump’s upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump says he and Moon will be discussing the planned summit in Singapore.
Moon says they are “one step closer” to the dream of a denuclearised Korean Peninsula.
Moon said he believes Kim is “serious” about the talks. He says North Korea has a chance to be a great country, and he is urging Kim to “seize this opportunity.”
US Vice-President Mike Pence says no concessions have been given or offered to North Korea in the run-up to a June summit between the US and Kim Jong Un.
Pence tells Fox News Radio on Tuesday that the US remains open to the summit between President Donald Trump and Kim. Pence notes that the
invitation to meet originated with Kim.
The meeting was scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, but Kim recently balked in the face of US demands that he give up North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.
Pence says planning continues for the historic summit.
Trump and Pence are meeting later Tuesday at the White House with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
President Donald Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is still weeks away, but a colorful commemorative coin of the two leaders is ready to go.
The red-white-and-blue coin shows the two men in profile set against their countries’ flags. Printed along the edges are their names and countries, with the words “Peace Talks” written at the top.
The coin was issued by the White House Communications Agency, a military command responsible for the president’s global communications needs.