Trump ‘will walk out’ if North Korea talks not fruitful

Washington, April 19 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has said that if his planned talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are not fruitful he will "walk out", media reported.

He said this during a joint news conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the BBC reported.

Trump said if he did not think the meeting would be successful he would not go, and if the meeting went ahead but was not productive, he would walk out.

"Our campaign of maximum pressure will continue until North Korea denuclearises," he added.

Abe is at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for talks.

Earlier, Trump had confirmed that CIA Director Mike Pompeo had made a secret trip to North Korea to meet Kim over the easter weekend.

He said Pompeo had forged a "good relationship" with Kim — whom he called the "little rocket man" in 2017. Trump said the Pompeo-Kim meeting had gone off "very smoothly".

The visit marked the highest-level contact between the US and North Korea since 2000.