Trump says he'll leave meeting with Kim Jong Un if it's not 'fruitful'

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

During a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday evening in Florida, President Trump said he might meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as early as June, and he will do "everything possible" to ensure the summit is a "worldwide success."

Trump said the United States will exert maximum pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear program, and he wants to see the two Koreas live together in "safety, prosperity, and peace." Once the meeting is underway, if it goes poorly and is not "fruitful," Trump said, he plans to "respectfully leave." It's urgent that we "end nuclear weapons, ideally in all parts of the world," Trump said, and the U.S. is "fighting very diligently" to get three Americans imprisoned in North Korea their freedom.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.