White House confirms June 12 as date of first meeting between Trump and Kim
The White House said yesterday that a first meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jongun will take place at 9am in Singapore on June 12.
“We are actively preparing for the June 12 summit between the president and the North Korean leader,” spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
“We feel like things are continuing to move forward and good progress has been made.”
Ms Sanders said that the White House “advance team” of military, security, technical and medical staff were already in the South-East Asian state.
They are “finalising preparations and will remain in place until the summit begins”, she said.
Ms Sanders said Mr Trump was receiving daily briefings on North Korea from his national security team.
Experts have voiced concern that despite his claim to be the world’s greatest deal-maker, he knows little about North Korea, arms control or international diplomacy.
The summit is expected to focus on US efforts to have North Korea abandon its nuclear programme.
Pyongyang is believed to have developed a miniaturised nuclear device that could be placed on a missile capable of striking the US.
Washington has called that unacceptable and demanded that North Korea embark on full and verifiable denuclearisation.
With days to go before the meeting, it remains unclear whether Pyongyang is willing to take that step, or whether it is using the promise of talks as a way of easing Mr Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign.
Last week he said he no longer wanted to use that term and indicated that he was willing to embark on a long series of talks to ease pressure on the regime.
“I never said it goes in one meeting. I think it’s going to be a process,” Mr Trump said after welcoming top official Kim Yong-chol to the White House.
“But the relationships are building and that’s a very positive thing.”
He said there would be no new sanctions while the talks are taking place, although the White House said existing economic sanctions would not be removed.