TRUMP HOPES TO MEET KIM JONG IN JAN OR FEB

Washington, Dec. 2: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he hoped to organise a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in early 2019, perhaps as soon as January or February.

Trump told reporters travelling home to Washington with him aboard Air Force One from Argentina that “three sites” were in consideration for the meeting, a follow- up to their historic summit in Singapore in June.

“I think we’re going to do one fairly ( soon) — you know, into January, February, I think,” said Trump, who was in Buenos Aires.

“We’re getting along well. We have a good relationship.” In the Argentine capital, he held separate bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday that primarily focused on trade, but the US leader said Xi he had agreed to work with him “100 percent” on North Korea.

When asked on Saturday if he would ever host the North Korean leader in the US, Trump replied: “At some point, yeah.” In June, Trump and Kim opened up a face- to- face dialogue after months of trading military threats and pointed barbs.

The two leaders signed a vaguely worded document on denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but progress has since stalled as Washington and Pyongyang spar over the meaning of the document.

North Korea has taken few concrete steps to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to meet with a top North Korean official in early November, but the meeting was abruptly put off, with Pyongyang insisting that Washington ease sanctions.