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<\/p>\nWashington, DC…The meeting went very well. We\u2019ll be meeting on June 12th in Singapore. It went very well. It\u2019s really a get-to-know-you kind of a situation. Mike has spent two days doing this. We\u2019ve gotten to know their people very well. And we will \u2014 you people are going to have to travel because you\u2019ll be in Singapore on June 12th. And I think it\u2019ll be a process. It\u2019s not \u2014 I never said it goes in one meeting. I think it\u2019s going to be a process. But the relationships are building, and that\u2019s a very positive thing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Q Mr. President, what\u2019s your sense of what the North Koreans are willing to do on the issue of denuclearization? Are they looking at it all at once?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think they want to do that. I know they want to do that. They want other things along the line. They want to develop as a country. That\u2019s going to happen. I have no doubt. Japan is involved, as you know. And South Korea is very much involved. We\u2019re involved in terms of getting everything. Everybody wants the United States. So we\u2019re going to help in the process very much. Without us, it wouldn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
But I think that you see a lot of very positive things, including with China. I think you see a lot of very positive things happening with President Xi, who has helped me quite a bit with this. So we\u2019ll see where it leads.<\/p>\n
But we\u2019re going to be \u2014 June 12th, we\u2019ll be in Singapore. It will be a beginning. I don\u2019t say and I\u2019ve never said it happens in one meeting. You\u2019re talking about years of hostility; years of problems; years of, really, hatred between so many different nations. But I think you\u2019re going to have a very positive result in the end. Not from one meeting, but you\u2019re going to have a very positive \u2014<\/p>\n
Q You appeared to question their sincerity in your letter to Kim Jong Un last week. Have they gone far enough now? Do you believe they\u2019re sincere?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: My letter was a response to their letter. The media forgot that. You know, the media said, \u201cOh, you had a meeting, then you cancelled.\u201d I didn\u2019t cancel the meeting. I cancelled it in response to a very tough statement. And I think we\u2019re over that \u2014 totally over that. And now we\u2019re going to deal, and we\u2019re going to really start a process.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re meeting with the Chairman on June 12th. And I think it\u2019s probably going to be a very successful \u2014 ultimately, a successful process. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n
Remember what I say: We will see what we will see. But I think it\u2019s going to be a process that we deserve to have. I mean, we really deserve \u2014 they want it. We think it\u2019s important. And I think we would be making a big mistake if we didn\u2019t have it. I think we\u2019re going to have a relationship, and it will start on June 12th.<\/p>\n
Q What can you get done in one meeting? What can you get done on June 12th? And why do you think they\u2019re open to denuclearization?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Well, this was a very good meeting. Don\u2019t forget, this was a meeting where a letter was given to me by Kim Jong Un, and that letter was a very nice letter. Oh, would you like to see what was in that letter? Would you like it?<\/p>\n
Q Can you tell us?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: How much? How much? How much?<\/p>\n
Q Can you just give us a flavor of what the letter said?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Ah, it was a very interesting letter. And at some point I may be \u2014 it may be appropriate, and maybe I\u2019ll be able to give it to you. Maybe you\u2019ll be able to see it, and maybe fairly soon.<\/p>\n
But really, this was a letter presentation that ended up being a two-hour conversation.<\/p>\n
Q Why did it end up going so long, sir?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Because we found the whole subject matter very interesting. And because I really think they want to do something. And if it\u2019s possible, so do we.<\/p>\n
Q What did he ask you (inaudible)?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: I think all we\u2019re going to do is be there on June 12th, and we\u2019re going to see what happens. Mike has been dealing very well. They have a very good relationship with Mike Pompeo, our Secretary of State. It was actually very interesting because this was literally going to be the delivery of a letter, and it ended up being a two-hour conversation with the second most powerful man in North Korea.<\/p>\n
Q Did he ask you anything about troop levels in South Korea?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: We talked about almost everything. We talked about a lot. And we talked about sanctions.<\/p>\n
Q (Inaudible) with Kim Jong Un yet?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: I don\u2019t want to say that.<\/p>\n
Q Did they agree to CVID, sir?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: We talked about about a lot of things. We really did. But the big deal will be on June 12th. And again, it\u2019s a process. It doesn\u2019t go \u2014 we\u2019re not going to sign a \u2014 we\u2019re not going to go in and sign something on June 12th and we never were. We\u2019re going to start a process. And I told them today, \u201cTake your time. We can go fast. We can go slowly.\u201d But I think they\u2019d like to see something happen. And if we can work that out, that will be good. But the process will begin on June 12th in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Q Do you believe Kim is committed to denuclearization?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I do think so. He\u2019d like to see it happen. He wants to be careful. He wants to be, you know \u2014 he\u2019s not going to run and do things. But I told him, to be honest with you, look, we have sanctions on; they\u2019re very powerful sanctions. We would not take sanctions off unless they did that. But the sanctions are very powerful. You\u2019ve seen how powerful in other ways. You\u2019re going to see how powerful sanctions are when it comes to Iran. You see what that\u2019s doing to Iran.<\/p>\n
So we have sanctions on. And at a certain point, I\u2019ll tell you what, I look forward to the day when I can take the sanctions off of North Korea.<\/p>\n
Q Did you talk about human rights today? And do you expect to talk about it on \u2014<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: We did not talk about human rights, no.<\/p>\n
Q Do you expect to talk about it on June 12th?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Could be. Yeah. Could be. I think we probably will, and maybe in great detail. We did not talk about human rights.<\/p>\n
Q Did you talk about sanctions? Did they ask you to make any changes?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, we did. We talked about it. Yes, they asked about sanctions.<\/p>\n
Q Is maximum pressure over, sir?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me?<\/p>\n
Q Is maximum pressure over, sir?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: It\u2019s going to remain what it is now. I don\u2019t even want to use the term \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d anymore because I don\u2019t want to use that term because we\u2019re getting along. You see the relationship. We\u2019re getting along.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s not a question of maximum pressure. It\u2019s staying essentially the way it is. At some point, hopefully, a deal \u2014 for the good of millions of people, a deal will be worked out.<\/p>\n
Q Mr. President, how would you describe the state of relations now between the United States and North Korea after your meetings today?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think they\u2019re okay. I mean, I think they\u2019re good. Is it like the relationships we have with a couple of other countries? Probably not. Right? But I think the relationship we have right now with North Korea is as good as it\u2019s been in a long time.<\/p>\n
They had no relationship under the previous administration. There was nothing. It was nothing. They were explaining, it was just a \u201cnothing.\u201d Nothing was done.<\/p>\n
Hey, folks, this should not be up to me. This should have been handled a long time ago. This got to a very critical point. This should have been handled many years ago \u2014 not only by President Obama, but by other Presidents that preceded me. This shouldn\u2019t be done now, this should have been done years ago.<\/p>\n
Q Do you plan to offer the North Koreans economic aid at the June 12th summit?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Well, what\u2019s going to happen is South Korea will do that. No, I don\u2019t think the United States is going to have to spend. I think South Korea will do it. I think China \u2014 I think, frankly, China will help out.<\/p>\n
I think that Japan will help out. No, I don\u2019t see the United States spending a lot of money. You know, we have three hostages. How much money did I spend for the hostages?<\/p>\n
And, look, we\u2019re very far away. We are very far away. Those places are very close. It\u2019s their neighborhood. We\u2019re thousands \u2014 we\u2019re 6,000 miles away. So I\u2019ve already told South Korea, I said, \u201cYou know, you\u2019re going to have to get ready.\u201d And Japan, also.<\/p>\n
And I think they really want to see something great happen. Japan does, South Korea does, and I think China does. But that\u2019s their neighborhood; it\u2019s not our neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Q Mr. President, yesterday you were concerned about the meeting that Lavrov was having with Kim Jong Un.<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I didn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n
Q Where are you on that today?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: I didn\u2019t like it, but it could be very positive, too.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t like the Russian meeting yesterday. I said, \u201cWhat\u2019s the purpose of that?\u201d But, it could be a positive meeting. If it\u2019s a positive meeting, I love it. If it\u2019s a negative meeting, I\u2019m not happy. And it could very well be a positive meeting.<\/p>\n
Q Are you willing to end the South Korean War on June 12th, during the summit?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we could \u2014 that could happen. That could happen. We talked about it.<\/p>\n
Q Tell us more.<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: We talked about ending the war. And you know, this war has been going on \u2014 it\u2019s got to be the longest war \u2014 almost 70 years, right? And there is a possibility of something like that. That\u2019s more of a signing of a document that it\u2019s very important in one way. Historically, it\u2019s very important. But we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n
And we did discuss that \u2014 the ending of the Korean War. Can you believe that we\u2019re talking about the ending of the Korean War? You\u2019re talking about 70 years.<\/p>\n
Q Has that document been prepared? Or is it being prepared?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we\u2019re going to discuss it prior to the meeting. That\u2019s something that could come out of the meeting. I think, really, there\u2019s something that maybe could come out of the meeting.<\/p>\n
Q Where\u2019s China on that?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: I think China would like to see a very positive result. I have a lot of good relations with, as you know, Chairman Xi. He\u2019s a great \u2014 he\u2019s really a very wonderful guy. He\u2019s a man that loves China. However, he wants to do what\u2019s best for China. I think China and President Xi would love to see something happen here.<\/p>\n
Q When you say you\u2019re going to guarantee Kim\u2019s security, and the North Korean regime\u2019s security, how will you do that? How would the United States do that?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we\u2019re going to make sure it\u2019s secure. We\u2019re going to make sure when this is over, it\u2019s over. It\u2019s not going to be starting up again.<\/p>\n
And they have a potential to be a great country. And I think South Korea is going to help a lot. Japan is going to help a lot. I think China is going to help a lot.<\/p>\n
Q How do you envision that working, though?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that\u2019s a very complicated question, frankly, but you\u2019ll see that over a period of time.<\/p>\n
Q When you gave your speech in Seoul last November, you talked about the bright promise if North Korea should choose to join the company of nations. But if you leave Kim in place, can you really have a transformation like that?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: I really think you can. And I think it\u2019s going to be very successful. They\u2019re incredible people. I think it\u2019s going to be a very great success. So we\u2019ll see what happens.<\/p>\n
But we\u2019ll see you \u2014 we will see you on June 12th, but I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll see you a little bit before that. In the meantime, how is Sarah doing? Okay? (Laughter.)<\/p>\n
Q Have you discussed dates for a second or a third summit?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: The \u2014 which one?<\/p>\n
Q Did you discuss dates for a second or a third meeting?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: I told them, I think that you\u2019re going to have, probably, others. Hey, wouldn\u2019t it be wonderful if we walked out and everything was settled all of a sudden from sitting down for a couple of hours? No, I don\u2019t see that happening. But I see over a period of time.<\/p>\n
And frankly, I said, \u201cTake your time. Take your time. It\u2019s going to remain as is, but take your time.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing I did do, and it was very important, we had hundreds of new sanctions ready to go on. And he did not \u2014 the director did not ask, but I said I\u2019m not going to put them on until such time as the talks break down.<\/p>\n
We have very significant sanctions on now. But we had hundreds \u2014 we have hundreds that are ready to go. But I said, \u201cI\u2019m not going to.\u201d But why would I do that when we\u2019re talking so nicely?<\/p>\n
Q Is this first meeting more of a personal diplomacy, part of your \u201cgetting to know you\u201d \u2014<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: I think it\u2019s a \u201cgetting to know you\u201d meeting, plus. And that can be a very positive thing.<\/p>\n
Q Mr. President, what was your response to the letter? Did you send anything back?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: No, I didn\u2019t. I haven\u2019t seen the letter yet. I purposely didn\u2019t open the letter. I haven\u2019t opened it. I didn\u2019t open it in front of the director.<\/p>\n
I said, \u201cWould you want me to open it?\u201d He said, \u201cYou can read it later.\u201d I may be in for a big surprise, folks. (Laughter.) So long, everybody. Q What\u2019s the next move on NAFTA, sir?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Well, NAFTA \u2014 look, it\u2019s been a terrible deal for the United States. People are starting to see it. We lose over $100 billion a year with Mexico. We lose many, many, many billions of dollars with Canada. Canada doesn\u2019t take \u2014 I mean, they\u2019re very restrictive as to taking our agricultural product, and other things.<\/p>\n
And, you know, all of these countries, including the European Union, they charge five times the tariff. We don\u2019t charge tariffs, essentially. They charge five times what we charge for tariffs. And I believe in the word \u201creciprocal.\u201d You\u2019re going to charge five times? We\u2019re going to charge five times. That hasn\u2019t been done. No other President ever brought it up. And it\u2019s going to be done now.<\/p>\n
So we\u2019re negotiating numerous deals. We\u2019re talking about NAFTA. To be honest with you, I wouldn\u2019t see NAFTA \u2014 I wouldn\u2019t mind seeing NAFTA, where you\u2019d go by a different name, where you make a separate deal with Canada and a separate deal with Mexico because you\u2019re talking about a very different two countries.<\/p>\n
But I wouldn\u2019t mind seeing a separate deal with Canada, where you have one type of product, so to speak, and a separate deal with Mexico.<\/p>\n
These are two very difficult countries. It\u2019s been a lousy deal for the United States from day one. We lose a lot of money with Canada, and we lose a fortune with Mexico. And it\u2019s not going to happen like that anymore.<\/p>\n
I mean, Mexico has taken our car companies, a big percentage of them. And we can\u2019t do that. And, look, the American worker agrees with me. Obviously, the stock market agrees because when you look at what\u2019s going on with the stocks, they\u2019re starting to see I\u2019m right.<\/p>\n
But if you take the European Union and you see the kind of tariff they charge, and then we don\u2019t, that\u2019s called, \u201cnot fair trade.\u201d I want fair trade. I like free trade, but I want fair trade. At a minimum, I want fair trade.<\/p>\n
And we\u2019re going to have it for our workers and for our companies. And you know what? The other side understands it.<\/p>\n
To be honest with you, they cannot believe that they\u2019ve gotten away with this for so many decades.<\/p>\n
Q Canada, the UK, some of our closest allies are complaining long and loud about these new tariffs. What do you say to them?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: They\u2019re our allies but they take advantage of us economically. And so I agree \u2014 I love Canada. I love Mexico. I love them. But Mexico is making over $100 billion a year and they\u2019re not helping us with our border because they have strong laws and we have horrible laws. We have horrible border laws. They have strong \u2014 they could solve our border problem if they wanted, but they don\u2019t want to. And when they want to, then I\u2019ll be happy.<\/p>\n
But I think we have a good chance of doing some great trade deals, and we\u2019ll make America great again. Right? That\u2019s what we\u2019re doing. But America has picked up \u2014 we\u2019ve made about $8 trillion in value since \u2014 you know, we\u2019re double the size of the economy of China. We\u2019ve picked up a lot of value, a lot of wealth, since I\u2019ve been President. More than $8 trillion. And that\u2019s a very low number because we\u2019re talking stock market wealth. I\u2019m talking about beyond that.<\/p>\n
Our companies are doing great, we\u2019re doing great, our military is rebuilding. We have a lot of great things going. We\u2019re going to straighten out trade. The trade is going to be easy.<\/p>\n
And other countries understand. You know, when I talk to them, they look at me \u2014 and this is in closed doors, not for you people \u2014 and they essentially say, \u201cWe can\u2019t believe we\u2019ve gotten away with this for so long.\u201d It\u2019s like, you guys can\u2019t believe you\u2019ve gotten away with it for so long.<\/p>\n
Q (Inaudible.)<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: I want everyone to watch. Because I\u2019ll tell you what, we have such a great country. Right now, at this level, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever been, on an economic scale \u2014 you look at the numbers: 3.8 percent. We have the lowest numbers of unemployment that we\u2019ve had \u2014 is it 50 years? I think it\u2019s 50. Fifty years, right? So we have the best \u2014 we have some of the best economic numbers we\u2019ve ever had as a nation. And that goes a long way. And we\u2019re building something very special. Just remember, we\u2019re twice the size \u2014 our economy \u2014 twice the size of China.<\/p>\n
Good meeting today. I think it\u2019s a great start.<\/p>\n
Q What\u2019s on the agenda for Camp David?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Just a little relaxation and a lot of work. We have a lot of calls set up. I\u2019m calling a lot of the foreign leaders. I\u2019m negotiating trade deals. I\u2019m working. I\u2019m working hard for you people.<\/p>\n
Have a good time. Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington, DC…The meeting went very well. We\u2019ll be meeting on June 12th in Singapore. It went very well. It\u2019s really a get-to-know-you kind of a situation. Mike has spent two days doing this. We\u2019ve gotten to know their people very well. And we will \u2014 you people are going to have to travel because you\u2019ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/whitehouselogo200.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}