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Washington, May 1 (PTI): The US has never been closer to getting rid of North Korea’s nuclear weapons, President Donald Trump has said, exuding confidence that his planned summit with the reclusive country’s leader Kim Jong Un will be a “success”.
Trump has accepted an invitation for a meeting with Kim. The meeting is scheduled to take place soon, possibly in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) straddling the border between the two Koreas.
He also confirmed yesterday that Singapore was also on the list of possible sites.
Trump praised Kim for living up to his promise of not launching ballistic missiles and carrying out any nuclear tests before the planned meeting.
“The US has never been closer to potentially having something happen with respect to the Korean peninsula that can get rid of the nuclear weapons, can create so many good things, so many positive things, and peace and safety for the world,” Trump said yesterday.
“So, we’ll see what happens. You know, I often say, Who knows? Who knows? Maybe a lot of things change,” he told reporters during a joint news conference with the visiting Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
Lauding Kim for his recent statements, Trump said everybody wanted to see the meeting happen and it had a chance to be a “big event”.
“Kim Jong Un, who has been very open and very straightforward so far - I can only say, again, so far. But he’s talking about getting rid of the site, which was their big site.
“He’s talking about no research, no launching of ballistic missiles, no nuclear testing.
And he has lived up to that for a long period of time, a longer period of time than anybody has seen,” Trump said.
“There’s something that I like about it, because you’re actually there - if things work out, there’s a great celebration to be had on the site, not in a third party country.
So we are looking at the possibility of doing it in that location. We’re also looking at various other countries, including Singapore,” he said.
Noting that it would be “very interesting”, Trump said it would be a “great celebration” if it worked out well.
He expressed confidence that the summit would happen.
“I think the summit is going to happen. They very much want it. We certainly would like to see it. I think the summit will happen. And personally, I think it’s going to be a success, but we’ll see,” he said.
“If it doesn’t work out well, that’s the way it goes,” he said.
“If it’s not a success, I will respectfully leave. It’s very simple,” Trump said, seeking to strike a balance between optimism and scepticism about the upcoming summit.
Nigerian President Buhari congratulated the leaders of the North and South Koreas on their historic summit, and applauded them for the positive commitment they have shown towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
Trump also came in for praise from Buhari.
“President Trump deserves a great deal of credit for his statesmanly role in transforming so dramatically the course of events in that region,” he said.