Talks with Kim Jong Un a possibility, Trump says

President Donald Trump said the U.S. is open to engaging in discussions with South Korea and North Korea at “the appropriate time” and that he’d be willing to speak directly with Kim Jong Un if certain conditions were met.

“Right now they’re talking Olympics. It’s a start. It’s a big start,” Trump said at a press conference at Camp David about talks expected in the coming week between South Korea and North Korea. It would be “great for humanity” if something beyond co-operating in February’s Winter Olympic Games comes out of the talks, he said.

When asked whether he’d be open to talking to Kim, the North Korean leader whom he’s dismissed in Twitter messages and in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly as “Rocket Man,” Trump said “Sure, I always believe in talking,” adding that “he knows I’m not messing around, not even a little bit.”

Trump praised the talks planned for this week after previously shunning such diplomatic efforts, and even publicly chiding Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in October for “wasting his time” by pursing them.

His comments Saturday went further than his earlier endorsements, though, and Trump said the meeting wouldn’t have been possible without his tough rhetoric toward North Korea. The remark also followed days after Trump warned on Twitter that his “nuclear button” is bigger and more powerful than Kim’s.

“These are constructive comments by the president,” said Nicholas Burns, a former Undersecretary of State in President George W. Bush’s administration, now a professor at Harvard. “It is essential that we remain united with Seoul and not permit Kim Jong Un to divide us.”

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, elected in May, campaigned on greater engagement with North Korea after both hard-line and more accommodating approaches toward Pyongyang have failed over the years. When Kim used his New Year’s address to offer direct talks with Seoul, Moon quickly accepted, underscoring the differences between the U.S. and its longtime ally. Previously the Trump administration has said that Kim must abandon or at least pause his nuclear weapons program before talks would be considered.