Trump will walk out if North Korea talks not fruitful

International Desk: US President Donald Trump says that if his planned talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are not fruitful he will ‘walk out’.

At a joint news conference, he and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said maximum pressure must be maintained on North Korea over nuclear disarmament.

Mr Abe is at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for talks.

Earlier, Mr Trump confirmed that CIA Director Mike Pompeo had made a secret trip to North Korea to meet Mr Kim.

He said Mr Pompeo had forged a "good relationship" with Mr Kim - whom the US president was last year calling "little rocket man" - and that the meeting had gone "very smoothly".

The visit marked the highest-level contact between the US and North Korea since 2000.
Mr Trump is expected to hold a summit with Mr Kim by June. Details, including a location, are still being worked out.

President Trump said at the joint news conference that if he did not think the meeting would be successful he would not go, and if the meeting went ahead but was not productive, he would walk out.

"Our campaign of maximum pressure will continue until North Korea denuclearises," he added.

"As I've said before, there is a bright path available to North Korea when it achieves denuclearisation in a complete and verifiable and irreversible way. It would be a great day for them, it would be a great day for the world."

On trade, the leaders agreed to start talks on "free, fair and and reciprocal trade deals".
Mr Trump said the US remained opposed to rejoining the Trans Pacific Partnership unless Japan and other parties to the trade pact offered "a deal that I can't refuse".

Source: BBC


risingbd/April 18, 2018/Mukul