The Latest: South Korean leader says he believes in Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in (all times local):
12:45 p.m.
The leader of South Korea says that since President Donald Trump met Kim Jong Un (gihm jung oon) in Vietnam, there has been a marked reduction in “military tension” with North Korea.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in is meeting with Trump at the White House for the first time since the unsuccessful summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi. Moon said Thursday that South Korea believes that Trump will be able to solve the nuclear standoff through dialogue.
Moon says the important task now is to “maintain the momentum of dialogue” and hold a third summit in the future.
Trump says a third summit could happen but that’s it’s “step by step.” He wouldn’t say whether he had talked to Kim since the Hanoi meeting in late February.
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12:40 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he’s going to talk with the president of South Korea about prospects for future meetings to negotiate an end to the nuclear standoff with North Korea.
Efforts to get North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (gihm jung oon) to give up his nuclear weapons tops the agenda of Trump’s meeting in the Oval Office on Thursday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Trump says that it’s going to be a “productive” day of talks and that over time “tremendous things will happen” with North Korea.
Trump also says that he continues to have good relations with Kim and that they had a good meeting in Vietnam although they didn’t accomplish what they wanted.
A third summit between Trump and Kim has not been announced.
The South Korean leader has been shuttling between Washington and Pyongyang (pyuhng-yahng) to keep the nuclear talks on track.
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12:15 p.m.
President Donald Trump is meeting with the leader of South Korea to discuss a way forward for nuclear talks with North Korea.
It is President Moon Jae-in’s first meeting with Trump since an unsuccessful nuclear summit with Kim Jong Un (gihm jung oon) in February in Hanoi. And it comes amid uncertainty over whether Kim is considering backing out of negotiations or restarting nuclear and missile tests.
The South Korean leader has been shuttling between Washington and Pyongyang (pyuhng-yahng) to keep the nuclear talks on track.
The Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that at a party meeting on Wednesday, Kim stressed “self-reliance” in his country to “deal a telling blow to the hostile forces” that “go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring” North Korea “to its knees.”
