Trump on Wednesday warned that if the United States was forced to “negotiate” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over the nuclear program, it would be “very, very painful” and “a terrible tragedy.”
“We will have a very, very terrible disaster if we have to negotiate,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News.
“I think if we do negotiate, we will have tremendous difficulty.
We will have the great tragedy of negotiating.
I don’t know if you’re listening, but we will negotiate, and if we don’t, we’re going to have tremendous trouble.”
The president’s comments came as a top North Korean diplomat, Song Young-hoon, told the Wall Street Journal that North Korea’s nuclear program was in the “final stages of completion” and was “being carried out to the utmost” as a result of sanctions.
Trump has been in Washington, D.C., for two days and will host Chinese President Xi Jinping for an international summit on Thursday.