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WASHINGTON/SEOUL. — US President Donald Trump said yesterday his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could still take place on the 12th of June, after cancelling the summit a day earlier. Trump said the two countries are talking and both sides want to have the meeting that was supposed to be held in Singapore.

“We’ll see what happens. It could even be the 12th,” Trump told reporters before departing the White House.
“We’re talking to them now. They very much want to do it. We’d like to do it. We’re going to see what happens.”
Trump cancelled the meeting a day earlier, citing “tremendous anger and open hostility” from North Korea.

North Korea responded that it was still willing to talk with the US.
“We would like to make known to the US side once again that we have the intent to sit with the US side to solve problem regardless of ways at any time,” Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan said in a statement carried by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.

“We remain unchanged in our goal and will to do everything we could for peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and humankind, and we, broad-minded and open all the time, have the willingness to offer the US side time and opportunity,” he said.

Trump welcomed the statement on Twitter early yesterday.
“Very good news to receive the warm and productive statement from North Korea,” he wrote. “We will soon see where it will lead, hopefully to long and enduring prosperity and peace. Only time (and talent) will tell!”

Asked by reporters if North Korea was playing games, Trump said, “Everybody plays games. You know that better than anybody.” — Yonhap News