President Donald Trump said Sunday that the US is “negotiating a location” for a second summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, whom Trump says he has spoken to “indirectly.”
CNN reported last week that the US has been scouting sites for the second summit, according to two sources familiar with the planning process. Trump first met Kim in Singapore in June 2018 for a historic and unprecedented meeting that ended with declarations of a new friendship but only vague pledges about nuclear disarmament.
Trump also said Sunday that the US has a “very good dialogue” going with North Korea, despite signs that talks between the two countries appear to have reached a stalemate.
“Now I say this, North Korea, we’re doing very well,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on Sunday. “And again, no rockets. There’s no rockets. There’s no anything. We’re doing very well.”
Trump noted that sanctions against North Korea will remain “in full force and effect” in the meantime, and warned that if anyone else had been elected US president, “you’d be at war right now.”
“You would right now be in a nice, big fat war in Asia with North Korea if I wasn’t elected president,” Trump said.
Last week, Trump said that the White House would be setting up a meeting with Kim in the “not too distant future.” He also said he had received a “great” letter from Kim and held it aloft in the Cabinet Room for reporters to see.
Trump’s remarks last week came one day after Kim’s New Year’s address, in which the North Korean leader warned the US about sanctions.
“I’ll endeavor towards a result that will be welcomed by the international community,” Kim said of the potential second meeting between the two leaders.
North Korea, however, would have “no choice but to defend our country’s sovereignty and supreme interest, and find a new way to settle peace on our peninsula” if the US “misinterprets our people’s patience, and makes one-sided demands and continues down the path of sanctions and pressure on our republic,” Kim said.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.