Trump predicts a "very tremendous summit" with Kim Jong Un
President Trump predicted he'll have a "very tremendous summit" with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un this week in Hanoi, where he hopes to deliver on promises moving the North toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Mr. Trump made the remarks at a gathering of the nation's governors at the White House shortly before he was to leave for Hanoi Monday.
"We talk about something that frankly he never spoke to anybody about, but we're speaking and we're speaking loud, and frankly, I think we're going to have a tremendous summit," Mr. Trump said, adding that he thinks they'll set records for tremendous speed in denuclearization.
On Sunday evening, the president told a group of governors that he's "not in a rush" on denuclearization, and "as long as there's no testing, we're happy." In June, Mr. Trump and Kim signed what he called a "pretty comprehensive" joint document that laid out commitments for the North to work toward complete and verifiable denuclearization of the region. Intelligence officials say that the North still poses a threat to the U.S. and has failed to deliver on making any real efforts to completely remove nuclear weapons from its stockpile.
In his remarks Sunday, Mr. Trump also mentioned the ongoing China trade talks. He said he thought there would be big news to announce over the next "week or two." He has pushed back a March 1 deadline of imposing more tariffs on Chinese imports.
At Monday's breakfast, Mr. Trump touted the progress of the trade talks and said he would soon be having a "signing ceremony" for the trade agreement.
The president also pressed governors at the meeting on support for his border wall after issuing a national emergency declaration last week. Mr. Trump said construction just started on a 47-mile long patch of wall at the southern border and there would be more than 200 miles of wall under construction "pretty soon."
Mr. Trump said "if we have some money left over" they could look at putting walls in geographic locations where perhaps a wall isn't considered necessary at the moment. He called current wall construction a "work of art."
The president also repeated his claim that some countries are not sending "their finest" and said they are sending "rough hombres" in some cases.
"You take a look at Tijuana, Mexico, thousands and thousands of people are sitting there trying to get into our country," Mr. Trump said, asserting they would all get into the U.S. if there hadn't been newly renovated sections built there.
Kathryn Watson, Sara Cook and Emily Tillett contributed to this report.
