President Trump says that “there’s a good chance” his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place in Singapore on June 12, as planned, although he has also sounded less certain about the timing earlier this week.
“We’ll see what happens. Right now we’re looking at it, we’re talking about it,” he told Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” in an interview airing Thursday. “And they’re talking to us. We have certain conditions. We’ll see what happens. But there’s a good chance.”
His guarded optimism was contradicted by insults from the North Koreans directed at Vice President Pence. North Korean Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui, quoted by the state-run news agency, said of Pence Thursday, “I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the US vice-president.”
Pence, in his own interview on Fox News on Wednesday, had seemed to threaten the North. “You know, as the president made clear, this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong-un doesn’t make a deal.” Under the Libyan model, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi dismantled his nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The agreement was initially seen as a success for denuclearization, with Libya welcoming international inspectors to verify the dismantlement. But eight years later, Gaddafi was overthrown in a gruesome killing by Western-backed rebels.
This interview with the president is Fox News’ 23rd since he took office, according to CBS News’ Mark Knoller, who has been tracking presidential data for decades. In comparison, NBC News has had the next most interviews — four. ABC News and CBS News have each had one, and CNN has been granted no interviews since the beginning of Mr. Trump’s presidency.
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