Trump says he’ll meet Kim within ‘3-4 weeks’

International Desk Published: 29 April 2018, 08:17 AM | Updated: 29 April 2018, 08:20 AM
Trump says he’ll meet Kim within ‘3-4 weeks’

US President Donald Trump said during a rally in Michigan on Saturday that there would likely be a US-North Korea meeting in the near future, but "whatever happens, happens."

"Look, I may go in. It may not work out. I leave," Trump said in Washington Township on the night of the White House Correspondents' Dinner, reports CNN.

The President went on to say he thinks "we'll have a meeting over the next three or four weeks."

Trump contrasted himself with former Secretary of State John Kerry, who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal that the US leader has long criticized. 

Trump spoke with South Korean President Moon Jae-In earlier Saturday, and in the speech he said the South Korean leader credited him for the apparent progress with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"He gives us tremendous credit," Trump said. "He gives us all the credit." 

Trump said the goal of the talks would be to "de-nuke" the Korean Peninsula and acknowledged the situation was difficult to predict. 

"I'm not going to give you what's going to actually happen because we don't really know," Trump said. 

Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Jonathan Karl, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Kim indicated he was "prepared" to work towards denuclearization during their meeting in Pyongyang four weeks ago.

"I had a clear mission statement from President Trump. When I left Kim Jong Un understood the mission exactly as I described it today," Pompeo said in an interview that is scheduled to air on the "This Week" program Sunday in the United States.

The US secretary of state said he and Kim had an "extensive conversation on the hardest issues that face our two countries." 

The Pompeo-Kim meeting was one in a series of high-level diplomatic talks over the Korean Peninsula, ahead of a potential meeting between Trump and Kim in late May.

In a historic move on Friday, Kim crossed the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean Peninsula and met with Moon, the first time the leaders of North and South Korea have met in person since 2007.

Following a full day of talks and symbolic events, both Moon and Kim issued a statement calling for the end of the Korean War and heralding a "new era of peace."

Speaking with Trump over the phone on Saturday night, Moon told the US President both he and Kim agreed Trump's "big decision" had greatly contributed to the unprecedented series of diplomatic talks, according to a readout from the South Korean President's office.