The revelation that the two leaders had agreed to meet made for explosive news when it was announced last month, as it would be the first meeting of a sitting US president and a sitting North Korean leader since the end of active hostilities in the Korean War.
Trump remarked that CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who is now his secretary of state nominee, recently met with Kim and "worked hard" on the issue of returning the three American citizens detained in North Korea.
"I hope to have a very successful meeting. If we don't think it's going to be successful, we won't have it, we won't have it. If I think it's a meeting that is not going to be fruitful we're not going to go," Trump told reporters at the Mar-a-Lago press briefing.
"If the meeting — when I'm there — is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting, and we'll continue what we're doing," he added.
"There is a bright path available to North Korea when it achieves denuclearization in a complete and verifiable and irreversible way," Trump stated, adding that the "maximum pressure" campaign will continue "until North Korea denuclearizes."
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018
The historic US-North Korea summit is expected to take place in the coming weeks. It is expected that the leaders will discuss denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that high level talks had taken place between Washington and Pyongyang. White House sources shortly afterward revealed that Pompeo had traveled to North Korea where he met Kim Jong Un.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018
During the news conference, Abe said that Japan and the US agreed to start new trade talks to cut the US' annual trade deficit with Tokyo. The prime minister said he had had "extremely fruitful talks in a relaxing atmosphere" over two days with Trump.
