President Trump offered Kim Jong-un a new incentive on Thursday to make a deal to get rid of his nukes and end his ballistic missiles program: a White House visit.
The president rejected a report that he was considering an invite for Kim to his Florida resort, a location he’s offered to other world leaders he wants to impress.
He said during a Rose Garden news conference that after his meet and greet with Kim in Singapore, though, 1600 Penn could next.
‘Maybe we’ll start with the White House, what do you think?’
A report on Thursday said that Trump was considering an invite to Palm Beach for Kim and the two men could even play a round of golf.
In the Oval Office, Trump said golf wasn’t on the agenda at this point in the relationship, saying he’d like to play in Singapore, but it will not be happening.
Trump also said he doesn’t need to prepare for his summit with with Kim because he’s already done all the preparation he needs.
‘I think I’m very well prepared. I don’t think I have to prepare very much. It’s about the attitude. It’s about willingness to get things done,’ he said Thursday in the Oval Office. ‘But I think I’ve been preparing for the summit for a long time. As has the other side. They’ve been preparing for a long time, also.’
Trump, who was seated next the Japanese prime minister at the time, said that he expects the discussion next week in Singapore with Kim to be ‘fruitful,’ as well as ‘exciting.’
‘I think we’re gonna get to know a lot of people that our country never got to know. This is something that should have been handled many years ago by other presidents,’ he said. ‘It shouldn’t be handled now, it should have been handled years ago. But it is being handled now, and I’ll take care of it.’
THIS COULD BE YOU: President Trump said that he could invite Kim Jong-un to the White House if he agrees to denuke
President Trump says he doesn’t need to prepare for his summit with Kim Jong-un because he’s already done all the preparation he needs
The president came out of a private meeting with Abe chipper about the prospects for not just a deal but for normalized relations, one day, between the U.S.
‘We’re going to have a great success,’ Trump said at a joint news conference.
And if it’s not, he told reporters, he’ll leave the negotiating table, although he hopes it will not be necessary.
‘I did it once before,’ he said of an earlier cancellation. ‘You have to be able to walk away.’
The Trump administration is saddling up for a whirlwind summit in Singapore that could extend beyond an initial day of talks if the U.S. president and the reclusive dictator of North Korea hit it off.
President Trump is due to return to the United States next Wednesday after a day of conversations with Kim Jong-un and his government that the first-term president says ‘will hopefully be the start of something big’ between the two countries.
A first meeting on June 12 between the leaders is on the books for Tuesday morning locally, a slot specifically chosen to line up with primetime programming in U.S. media markets.
Trump affirmed on Thursday that the talks could go longer, ‘depending on what happens.’
The meeting will be a defining moment of Trump’s presidency, regardless of whether he eventually seals the deal on an accord with the heavily-sanctioned nation to end its nuclear program.
In the meeting with Abe on Thursday, the president hit back at critics who said that the meeting would essentially be a photo-op with a viscous dictator with no plans to denuclearize.
‘I think it’s a process. I’ve told you that many times before. I think it’s not a one meeting deal, ‘ he said. ‘This will be at a minimum, we’ll start with, perhaps, a good relationship, and that’s something that’s very important toward the ultimate making of a deal.
‘I’d love to say it could happen in one deal, maybe it can. They have to denuke. If they don’t denuclearize, that will not be acceptable. We cannot take sanctions off. The sanctions are extraordinarily powerful, we cannot – and I could add a lot more, but I don’t, I’ve chosen not to do that at this time. But that may happen,’ Trump said, threatening to tighten the screws on Kim.
The Trump administration is saddling up for a whirlwind summit in Singapore that could extend beyond an initial day of talks if the U.S. president and the reclusive dictator of North Korea hit it off
President Trump is due to return to the United States next Wednesday after a day of conversations with Kim Jong-un and his government that the first-term president says ‘will hopefully be the start of something big’ between the two countries
The historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un will be held at the Capella Hotel on Singapore’s Sentosa Island
The details of the summit were still being hashed out on Thursday as Trump readied himself for a White House visit from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and two days of talks with leaders of the world’s largest economies in at the G7 summit in Canada.
His face-to-face with Kim will be the entree during the conversation with Abe at least, however trade policy will also be on the schedule for leaders.
‘Looking forward to seeing my friend Prime Minister @AbeShinzo of Japan at noon. Will be discussing North Korea and Trade,’ Trump tweeted Thursday.
Abe indicated he’d try to keep the conversation on security, postponing a fight over Trump’s worldwide steel and aluminum tariffs.
‘I want to make sure to be on the same page with President Trump ahead of the first ever U.S.-North Korea summit,’ Abe told reporters ahead of his trip, ‘so we can push forward nuclear and missile issues, and most importantly the abduction problem, and make for a successful summit.’
Trump and Abe saw each other in April at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s preferred destination for private talks, after the U.S. president accepted an invitation to meet with Kim.
Twice since taking office Trump has hosted Abe at his Florida estate. Once last year he invited China’s Xi Jinping down, as well.
A rumor was floating around the White House this week that if Kim plays his cards right he could received a treasured invite to Palm Beach for a round of golf as the Daily Beast reported, although it remained unconfirmed by DailyMail.com.
Trump in his typical ‘only time will tell’ fashion said Tuesday of the fate of his talks with Kim: ‘We will soon see!’
The message served to further lower the bar for what the White House had hoped to achieve out of the historic meeting that Trump previously predicted would be a ‘big success.’
His White House once thought the meeting could result in an immediate agreement to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, but it has since cast the talks next week as a ‘getting-to-know-you’ function for the two governments.
Trump last week told North Korea the negotiations could go slow or fast, as his administration came to the realization that an agreement would only come – if it does at all – after several rounds of back and forth between the U.S. and the cash-strapped North Korean government.
Larry Kudlow, the president’s National Economic Council director, held journalists asking about the expected outcome of the summit at arm’s length on Wednesday.
‘For these kind of decisions, let them meet first. Let them meet; let them discuss. And then we’ll see what happens,’ he said during a televised briefing at the White House on Trump’s trip to Canada.
President Trump says his face-to-face will Kim Jong-un ‘will hopefully be the start of something big’ between the U.s. and North Korea
The White House is pressing on with a summit between the two leaders that is set to take place next week in Singapore
PARADISE: Another vies of the private resort that Trump and Kim are meeting at
Kudlow similarly attempted to tamp down expectations of a deal on Sunday, suggesting on Fox News that getting the two leaders to Singapore in and of itself was a success.
‘I think the president is being very realistic, and it’s going to take a period of time,’ Kudlow said.
The White House is pressing on with the summit between the two leaders that is set to take place next week in Singapore after a period of uncertainty over whether the two leaders would go through on plans for the talks.
On Monday, the president’s spokeswoman revealed that the first of what is anticipated to be at least one day of meetings, if not more, would take place at 9 am on June 12 local time, when it will be 9 pm in Washington.
‘The advance team in Singapore is finalizing logistical preparations and will remain in place until the summit begins,’ Sarah Sanders said in a progress report.
She in a Tuesday tweet revealed that the summit would take place at a secluded luxury resort south of the city of Singapore on Sentosa Island.
With 30-acres of land to its name, Capella Hotel has 112 rooms, all furnished with king-size beds, running anywhere $500 a night to $7,500 an evening for a three-bedroom colonial manor and private pool.
Facilities include a sunny portico and the circular Grand Ballroom with a glass-domed skylight with room for 400 guests, making it a popular destination for wedding receptions.
The hotel was originally built to house the British officers of the Royal Artillery and their families in the 1880s
Old fuses with new in its use as a hotel with the original buildings back to their former glory and attached to the brand new ones
The property was established to house British officers of the Royal Artillery and their families in the 1880s. UK architect Norman Foster flipped it into a five-star hotel in 2009.
Trump opened up the White House last week to a group of North Korean officials who hand-delivered a letter from Kim that served to grease the skids for next week’s talks.
Sanders on Monday declined to reveal the contents of a letter that apparently made all the difference, with Trump putting the once cancelled summit with North Korea back on after an Oval Office meeting with Kim’s point-man for nuclear talks.
The president’s press secretary echoed Trump’s claim on Friday, which came before he ever opened the envelope, that it had been an ‘interesting’ read and said that preparations are ‘continuing to move forward.’
What the large letter that the White House showed off through pictures of the sealed envelope said exactly is still unknown.
President Trump and Kim Yong Chol pose in the Oval Office after Trump accepted a letter from Kim Jong-un on Friday. Trump told reporters afterwards that it was a ‘nice letter’ but then said he hadn’t yet read it
The officials came to Washington, after spending several days in New York, to hand-deliver the letter as the two sides worked to come to an agreement on the broad strokes of the deal that could realistically be filled out during talks.
‘This was a letter presentation that ended up being a two-hour conversation,’ Trump told reporters on the South Lawn after the Oval Office meeting with and departure of North Korea’s Kim Yong Chol.
Trump said that the meeting that actually lasted a little over an hour stretched out, ‘Because we found the whole subject matter very interesting. And because I really think they want to do something.’
‘This is a very good meeting. This was a meeting where a letter was given to me by Kim Jong-un. And that letter was a very nice letter. Oh, would you like to see what was in that letter! Would you like it? How much? How much? How much?’ he said, pretending to be an auctioneer taking bids from reporters.
Trump accepts the personal letter written by Kim Jong-un from envoy Kim Yong Chol. Trump used both hands to take the letter, as is the polite tradition in Korean culture
Trump meets with Kim Yong Chol (far right) and Kim Ju Sung, (second from right) an interpreter with North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after the letter ceremony on Friday
The Oval Office confab with Kim Yong Chol stretched out ‘Because we found the whole subject matter very interesting. And because I really think they want to do something’
Several minutes later he seemed to reverse himself, claiming that he had not opened the envelope. ‘No I didn’t. I haven’t seen the letter yet. I purposely didn’t open the letter. I haven’t opened it,’ he told a journalist.
‘I said, “Would you want me to open it?” He said, “You can read it later,”‘ said Trump, apparently referring to the North Korean envoy. ‘I may be in for a big surprise, folks! So long, everybody,’ he asserted.
After a week of uncertainty over the June 12 summit, the afternoon’s events locked in Trump and Kim Jong-un for a historic meeting next week in Asia.
‘We’ll be in Singapore. It will be a beginning,’ Trump said.
‘I don’t say, and I never said it happens in one meeting. You’re talking about years of hostility, years of problems, years of really hatred between so many different nations,’ he asserted. ‘But I think you’re going to have a very positive result in the end.’
North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol talks with U.S. President Donald Trump as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo looks on after a meeting at the White House
Trump said Friday after receiving the delegation of North Korean officials that he would move forward with a June 12 nuclear summit in Singapore
COME BACK NOW REAL SOON: President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo say goodbye to Kim and other North Koran officials
We’ll be in Singapore. It will be a beginning,’ President Trump told reporters on the South Lawn after the foreign officials’ departure
A week ago, Trump called off the summit in a terse letter to Kim after the dictator’s regime assaulted the vice president and attempted to dramatically shift the terms of a pact with the U.S.
Trump on Friday said that both he and his counterparts are ‘over that, totally over that, and now we’re going to deal.’
‘We’re meeting with the chairman on June 12. And I think it’s probably going to be a very successful, ultimately a successful process. We’ll see,’ the U.S. president added.
Former North Korean spy chief Kim Yong Chol led the North Korean delegation that met in the Oval Office with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump.
They spent just over an hour at the White House before the president personally escorted Kim and his associates to their vehicles, pausing several times as he did for photo ops, before delivering an update to the press.
Former North Korean spy chief Kim Yong Chol led the North Korean delegation that met in the Oval Office with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump this afternoon
They spent just over an hour meeting at the White House before the president personally escorted Chol and his associates to their vehicles and paused for a photo op before speaking to press
The warm display indicated that Trump planned to resume talks with Kim on June 12 in Singapore
The warm display indicated that Trump planned to resume talks with Kim Jong-un after abruptly halting them.
Moments after their departure he said the face-to-face would happen as planned.
‘You people are going to have to travel, because you’ll be in Singapore June 12,’ he told assembled press.
Trump said the initial face-to-face would be more of ‘a get-to-know-you kind of a situation’ for he and Kim, who met on two prior occasions in Pyongyang with Pompeo.
‘And I think we would be making a big mistake if we didn’t have it,’ he said.
The U.S. has stipulated that any deal with North Korea has to have a baseline of complete and verifiable denuclearization.
‘I think they want to do that. I know they want to do that. They want other things along the line,’ Trump on Friday said.
Kim is seen approaching the Oval Office on Friday alongside White House Chief of Staff John Kelly
The North Korean delegation arrived at the White House via a back entrance
Kim is seen entering the building through the president’s private living quarters behind Kelly
Trump said last Thursday that that he’d ‘like to see a total denuclearization in as quick a period of time as is practicable.’
‘You’re talking about machinery, you’re talking about things that can’t necessarily happen immediately but they can happen in as rapid a fashion as they can happen. That’s what I want to happen,’ he said.
He commented that just one sit-down with the communist country may not be enough to ensure it doesn’t pose a nuclear threat, lowering expectations for what might come out of the summit.
‘I want it to be meaningful. It doesn’t mean it gets all done at one meeting. Maybe a second and third and maybe we’ll have none,’ he said. ‘It’s in good hands. That I can tell you.’
Asked Monday about the possibility that denuclearization would be a phase-in process, Sanders would not go further, telling reporters, ‘I’m not going to go ahead and predict a meeting that hasn’t even taken place yet, and I can’t get into the ongoing diplomatic talks.
‘But I can tell you that they’ve been positive, and we’re looking forward to the meeting in Singapore.’
Trump tweeted that his administration is having good meetings with representatives of North Korea on Thursday
The president is expected to meet June 12 with dictator Kim Jong-un in Singapore, and he said Thursday that the summit will ‘hopefully’ happen as scheduled
Kim Yong Chol is the most senior North Korean official to visit the United States since 2000, when Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok traveled to Washington to meet with then-President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office.
U.S. officials also met with their counterparts last week in demiliterized zone between North and South Korea and in Singapore.
‘Discussions have been very positive, and significant progress has been made,’ Sanders on Monday said.
The timeline for denuclearization and how inspections would be carried out were among the largest sticking points as Trump looked ahead to the nuclear summit.
Sanctions relief for North Korea was also in question.
‘Our policy hasn’t changed, and as the president stated, we have sanctions on, they’re very powerful, and we would not take those sanctions off unless North Korea denuclearized,’ Sanders on Monday said.
Senate Democrats had warned earlier in the day on a call with reporters that while Trump has ‘broad discretion to lift sanctions’ on North Korea that he can expect the opposing party to fight him tooth-and-nail if he tries to implement a ‘ham-fisted deal’ that does not necessitate permanent denuclearization and an end to North Korea’a ballistic missile program
‘If the deal doesn’t live up to these standards, then the president should not expect Democratic support in the Senate if he tries to lift sanctions to implement the agreement,’ Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said.
North Korea Vice-Chairman Kim Yong-chol met Thursday in New York City with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo