President Trump on Monday predicted that his upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will “work out very nicely.”
Trump during a joint meeting thanked Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, for hosting the summit.
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“As you know, we’ve got a very interesting meeting tomorrow,” the president told Lee.
“We’ve got a very interesting meeting, in particular, tomorrow, and I just think it’s going to work out very nicely,” Trump added.
Trump is scheduled to meet with Kim on Tuesday for the first gathering between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.
The meeting will start Monday night Washington time.
The two are expected to discuss North Korea’s nuclear program at the historic summit, which Trump briefly canceled at the end of May.
Trump’s meeting with Kim also comes shortly after the North Korean leader met with South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, which made Kim the first North Korean leader to visit South Korea.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a briefing to reporters Monday said the summit is “an unprecedented opportunity” to alter the U.S.-North Korea relationship.
“President Trump believes that Kim Jong Un has an unprecedented opportunity to change the trajectory of our relationship and bring peace and prosperity to his country,” Pompeo said. “We are hopeful this summit will have set the conditions for future productive talks.”
The impending gathering between the two leaders comes after a tense year for U.S.-North Korea relations.
Trump during a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last September vowed to “totally destroy” North Korea should it provoke the United States and referred to Kim as a “rocket man” who is “on a suicide mission.”