President Donald Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting that a highly anticipated diplomatic summit with Kim Jong Un would happen in the next few months. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Trump says summit with North Korea will occur 'sometime in May or early June'

President Donald Trump said on Monday that a meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, would take place “in May or early June,” an announcement that came after Kim expressed a willingness to discuss his country’s nuclear weapons program.

Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House that a highly anticipated diplomatic summit with Kim would happen in the next few months.


“North Korea, by the way — as you can probably see, we’ve been in touch with North Korea,” Trump said. “We’ll be meeting with them sometime in May or early June, and I think there will be great respect paid by both parties.”

The timeline for talks between the two countries puts Trump largely on schedule with initial plans put forth last month by South Korean officials, who stunned the international community by announcing the two leaders would meet by May.

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Officials from North Korea said on Sunday that the government reached out to the U.S. to convey that Kim is open to discussing denuclearization efforts in a meeting with Trump.

Trump told reporters on Monday that “hopefully we’ll be able to make a deal on the de-nuking of North Korea.”

The president did not mention Kim by name and did not say whether the meeting would occur in the U.S., North Korea or elsewhere.

But Trump’s remarks bolstered the likelihood that the unprecedented sitdown with Kim — which would be the first such summit between a U.S. president and a North Korean leader — will actually occur.

Trump called the prospects of talks between the two countries “very exciting” while criticizing past administrations for not engaging in dialogue with North Korea.

“This should have been done by other presidents, and they decided they couldn’t have done it, but it would have been a lot easier if it were done five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago,” the president said.

Though the White House did not initially set pre-conditions for a meeting, Trump administration officials have maintained that North Korea has to get serious about ending its weapons testing and dismantling its nuclear program for talks to be successful.

The White House has said it will maintain maximum pressure and keep up sanctions on Kim’s government until progress is achieved in discussions.

Trump’s relationship with Kim has been marked by tense public feuding, with the president threatening last year to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea if its weapons tests continued.

