[AP/Yonhap News Photo]
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump said he is doing everything possible to have a "very successful" meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, but added he will walk away from the summit if it is unlikely to bear fruit.
"If I don't think it's going to be fruitful, we're not going to go," he said in a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Florida. "If the meeting is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting."
Trump plans to meet Kim in May or early June to discuss the denuclearization of the peninsula. The summit, if held, will be unprecedented for the two countries that have no diplomatic relations with each other.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Trump sent his nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to the North to meet Kim over Easter weekend. Trump confirmed later that Pompeo, current director of the Central Intelligence Agency, went to Pyongyang and formed a "good relationship" with the North's leader.
"We will not repeat the mistakes of previous administrations," Trump told reporters following two days of talks with Abe. "Our campaign of maximum pressure will continue until North Korea denuclearizes." The U.S. is negotiating for the release of three Americans held in the North and will also do everything it can to secure the return of Japanese citizens who were abducted by the regime decades ago, he added.
(Yonhap)
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
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