Trump says Kim meeting will be about ‘attitude,’ not prep work The president says the June 12 summit in Singapore could yield a major breakthrough — or be a bust.

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he didn’t feel a need to prepare for his historic June 12 meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, arguing that the high-stakes nuclear talks would be based more on “attitude” than advance legwork.

At the same time, Trump insisted that the event would “not be just a photo-op,” and reiterated demands that the North “denuclearize” in return for concessions like an end to U.S. sanctions.


In remarks during a White House visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, Trump alternated between bold visions of success and more cautionary notes, alternately saying that he could envision normalized relations with North Korea — but also warning that he was “totally prepared to walk away” from the negotiating table if the summit did not go well.

Following POLITICO report on Thursday that his White House has not convened a high-level National Security Council meeting to plan for the summit, Trump dismissed concerns that he has not adequately planned for the unprecedented summit with Kim in Singapore.

“I think I’m very well prepared,” Trump said with Abe by his side. “I don’t think I have to prepare very much. It’s about attitude, it’s about willingness to get things done. So this isn’t a question of preparation, it’s a question of whether or not people want it to happen, and we’ll know that very quickly.”

Trump will sit down with North Korea’s reclusive young leader to discuss a possible deal in which Kim dismantles his nuclear arsenal in return for concessions from the U.S. that could include security assurances and an end to economic sanctions.

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Days before he flies to Singapore for the first meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader, Trump on Thursday toggled between grand visions of a friendly, economically booming North Korea and the prospect that the meeting could be a total bust.

“I believe we’re going to have a terrific success — or a modified success,” he said. “But I really believe that we have the potential to do something incredible for the world, and it’s my honor to be involved.” Trump said the meeting could be the beginning of a “bright new future for the world.”

Trump added that he “would certainly like to see normalization” with North Korea, widely viewed as the most repressive and isolated nation on Earth. He added that the country had “tremendous” economic potential that could be unleashed by a successful nuclear agreement.

But Trump also cautioned that he was “totally prepared to walk away.”

“I did it once before,” he said, referring to his May 24 cancellation of the summit after bellicose statements from Pyongyang. “You have to be able to walk away.”

“President Trump is hopeful, but he’s also going into the summit with his eyes wide open,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters during a briefing at the White House on Thursday, adding: “You can be sure that President Trump will not stand for a bad deal.”

Trump repeated his past insistence that the Kim government denuclearize, and said the U.S. would not withdraw its array of sanctions on North Korea without such a step.

“This will not be just a photo-op,” he said. “This will be, at a minimum — we’ll start with, perhaps, a good relationship, and that’s something that’s very important toward the ultimate making of a deal. They have to denuke. If they don’t denuclearize, that will not be acceptable. We cannot take sanctions off.”

In response to a reporter’s question, Trump also expressed a desire for “normalization” with the North, telling journalists during the news conference with Abe that “normalizing relations is something that I would expect to do, I would hope to do, when everything is complete.”

That prospect strikes many experts as unfathomable. Kim presides over a network of forced-labor camps and routinely executes even seemingly loyal political lieutenants. He is an absolute dictator in a nation that has no freedom of expression and that threatened the U.S. with a possible nuclear “showdown” just last month.

Trump has long bragged about his deal-making abilities, dating back to his decades as a real estate developer in New York. That he might negotiate a nuclear deal with North Korea has spurred talks that the president might be deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize. President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, who along with Abe and Trump holds a heavy stake in ongoing talks with Kim, drew international attention in April when he suggested that the U.S. leader should receive the prize for his efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Trump’s meeting with Kim would be the culmination of months of warming relations between the U.S. and North Korea. On March 8, a delegation of visiting South Korean officials visiting the White House conveyed an invitation to Trump from Kim, which the president quickly accepted without consulting his advisers.

The meeting was initially scheduled for June 12 — then abruptly canceled by Trump amid a brief return to bellicose rhetoric from the North. The summit officially went back on the schedule last week, after a top North Korean official visited the U.S. and hand-delivered a letter from Kim to Trump.

Pressed on the contents of the letter, Trump described it as a simple, “warm” greeting from Kim, who expressed optimism over prospects for the summit.

“The letter was just a greeting,” the president said. “It was really very nice. Perhaps I can get approval to put it out. It was really a very warm letter, a very nice letter. I appreciated it very much.”

Pompeo, who has been an envoy between Washington and Pyongyang, offered an assurance on Thursday that Trump would be ready for the talks with Kim.

“I am very confident the president will be fully prepared when he meets with his North Korean counterpart,” Pompeo told reporters during the White House press briefing.

Pompeo even suggested that Trump's lack of a formal, traditional process of policy deliberation might be an asset.

“The diplomatic model we’ve used to date is different from past efforts,” he said. “Our efforts give us hope that we can find real success where past efforts have fallen short.”



CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of foreign leaders Kim Jong Un is known to have met with. Kim has met with Chinese president Xi Jinping and South Korean president Moon Jae-in.