TRUMP: The North Korea summit is back on

By John Haltiwanger | Business Insider | June 1, 2018

North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Leah Millis/Reuters
North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Leah Millis/Reuters

President Donald Trump on Friday said the highly anticipated summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was back on as originally scheduled.

"We'll be meeting on June 12 in Singapore," Trump said.

In response to a question about North Korea's willingness to agree to denuclearization, the president said, "It will be a beginning."

"I think you're going to have a very positive result in the end," Trump added, emphasizing that the talks with North Korea would be a "process."

The president said he told North Korea, "Take your time — we can go fast, we can go slowly," adding that he would cease using the phrase "maximum pressure" to describe his administration's approach to Pyongyang and its nuclear program moving forward.

A high-ranking North Korean official visited the US this week and delivered Trump a letter from Kim.

The president told reporters he had not yet opened the letter, though roughly 10 minutes before that he'd suggested he had, in fact, read it.

"It was a very nice letter," Trump said. "At some point maybe I'll be able to give it to you, and maybe you'll see it soon."

President Trump talks to media following White House meeting with Kim Yong Chol:

Late last month, Trump canceled the summit with Kim over aggressive comments made by the North Korean government. But the US and North Korea have been racing to save the talks ever since.

Trump's meeting on Friday with Kim Yong Chol, the vice chairman of North Korea's ruling party's Central Committee who was formerly the country's intelligence chief, lasted roughly an hour. The president said they did not discuss human-rights violations in North Korea but that it could come up during the June 12 summit.