US hopeful Trump-Kim meet will go ahead


FE Team | Published: May 17, 2018 19:32:03 | Updated: May 18, 2018 10:20:14


US hopeful Trump-Kim meet will go ahead

The Trump administration is hopeful that its summit with North Korea will go ahead, despite threats of cancellation.

A White House spokesperson said the US president remained ready, reports BBC.

Hours earlier, North Korea released an angry statement saying it might pull out of the meeting if the US insisted it gave up its nuclear weapons unilaterally.

The highly anticipated meeting between Mr Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un is due to take place on 12 June.

"The president is ready if the meeting takes place," said White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders. "If it doesn't, we'll continue the maximum pressure campaign that's been ongoing."

When asked if it would go ahead, Mr Trump later said: "We'll have to see".

He reiterated that the US would still insist on denuclearisation.

The groundbreaking agreement for Mr Kim and Mr Trump to meet came about as North Korea said it was committed to denuclearising the Korean peninsula.

Exactly what that would entail has remained unclear but North Korea has invited foreign media to witness the dismantling of its main nuclear test site later this month.

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