Trump sounds optimistic tone about future North Korea talks, suggests June 12 summit could happen after all

Washington • A day after aborting a summit with North Korea’s leader, President Donald Trump sounded an optimistic note Friday about future negotiations, saying it is even possible that a meeting could take place on June 12 as originally planned.

“We’ll see what happens. We are talking to them now,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Friday morning. “They very much want to do it. We’d like to do it.”

“It could even be the 12th,” he added, referring to the date next month that had been set for him to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore.

The president’s comments marked a head-spinning reversal from 24 hours earlier, when the White House released a letter from Trump to Kim in which Trump blamed the cancellation on “tremendous anger and hostility” coming from North Korea and said that the rogue nation had “lost a great opportunity for lasting peace.”

Asked by a reporter Friday whether North Korea had been playing games, Trump said: “Everybody plays games. You know that better than anybody.”

Trump made his comments as he headed to Annapolis to speak at the U.S. Naval Academy commencement ceremony. On Twitter before his departure, he also expressed optimism about opening a dialogue with Kim — and accused Democrats of “rooting against” his administration’s efforts.

In one of his Friday morning tweets, the president characterized a new statement coming out of North Korea — saying Kim remained open to talks with Trump — as “warm and productive” and “very good news.”

“We will soon see where it will lead, hopefully to long and enduring prosperity and peace,” Trump wrote. “Only time (and talent) will tell!”

Following the summit’s collapse, North Korea’s vice minister, Kim Gye Gwan, said that a meeting is urgently needed to deal with the “grave hostilities” in the relationship with the United States, which is seeking to eliminate the North’s nuclear program.

The statement from the vice minister also said: “We reiterate to the U.S. that we are willing to sit face to face at any time and in any way.”

Speaking to reporters later Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders left open the possibility of dispatching an advance planning team to Singapore as previously scheduled this weekend.

“There are still a few hours left to decide,” Sanders said. “If it takes place on June 12th, we’ll be ready. If it takes place on July 12th, we’ll be ready.”

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Trump administration officials were not surprised by the course of events and remain hopeful that the meeting between Trump and Kim will happen at some point.

“We always knew there would be twists and turns leading up to this meeting on June 12,” Nauert said. “We never expected it to be easy, so none of this comes as a surprise to us.”

Nauert said that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, White House national security adviser John Bolton and others remain in close coordination about a path forward.

“So we hope that the meeting will go forward at some point,” Nauert said. “We weren’t getting the right signals previously, so hopefully we will in the future. But we didn’t want to go to a meeting just for the sake of going to a meeting. There had to be something to come out of it.”

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis echoed Trump’s optimism Friday while speaking to reporters before a meeting with Danish officials at the Pentagon.

“We have got some, possibly some good news on the Korea summit, where it may, if our diplomats can pull it off, may have it back on even,” Mattis said. “Our president just sent out a note about that a few moments ago. That is a usual give and take, you know, of trying to put together big summits and stuff. The diplomats are still at work.”

Mattis was also asked whether the U.S. military would increase military exercises after the summit cancellation.

“We are not changing anything right now, it is steady as she goes,” he said. “The diplomats are in the lead and in charge, and we give them our best wishes to have a fruitful way forward.”

Trump also took to Twitter on Friday to knock Democrats, whom he said are “so obviously rooting against us in our negotiations with North Korea.”

In the tweet, the Republican president ticked off other grievances with Democratic leaders, saying they are also at odds with his agenda on fighting the MS-13 gang and tax cuts. “Dems have lost touch!” Trump asserted.

Following Trump’s announcement Thursday that he was pulling the plug on his meeting with Kim, several prominent Democrats criticized his approach to North Korea.

House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., for example, called Trump’s letter to Kim relaying his decision “another demonstration of President Trump’s treating of critical negotiations as if they were just another real estate deal.”

“From the beginning to the present, the dealings with North Korea have been sophomoric and without strategic or tactical merit,” Hoyer said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, admonished the Trump administration during a hearing on Thursday for the “lack of deep preparation” ahead of the summit.

“It’s pretty amazing that the administration might be shocked that North Korea is acting as North Korea might normally act,” he said.

Trump made no mention of North Korea during his address Friday to the graduating class of the Naval Academy, though he spoke of the importance of a strong military to ensure peace.

“We are respected again,” Trump said. “I can tell you that. We are respected again.”

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The Washington Post’s Missy Ryan contributed to this report.