U.S. President Donald Trump says North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has a chance to have his country be “a tremendous economic behemoth,” but was quick to add that “he can’t do that with nuclear weapons.”
Trump made the remark during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation”, the network’s Sunday political affairs program.
Asked when he’ll meet Kim for a second summit, Trump said he will make an announcement probably during his State of the Union address set for Tuesday or shortly before.
On U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats’s latest assessment that the North is unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons program, Trump said there’s a good possibility of that. But he was also quick to add there’s also a very good chance that a deal will be made given that the North is located between Russia, China and South Korea, stressing that with its location, the North has a chance “to be an economic powerhouse.”
During Sunday’s interview, the U.S. president also was asked about whether he plans to keep U.S. forces in South Korea.
He said though it’s very expensive to keep troops there, the U.S has no plans to pull out the troops, stressing that he’s never even discussed removing them.
Also during the interview, Trump underlined China’s role in bringing about North Korea’s denuclearization, saying Beijing has been very helpful, especially at the beginning in dealing with North Korea.