President Trump on Tuesday said that he “absolutely” plans to invite North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the White House.
The president later said that Kim had accepted the invite, but it would have to take place “at the appropriate time, a little bit further down the road.”
Trump also told reporters that he will visit Pyongyang “at a certain time.”
{mosads}
“That will be a day that I very much look forward to at the appropriate time,” the president said.
Trump’s comments came as he met with Kim in Singapore for the first face-to-face talks between a sitting U.S. president and North Korean leader in history.
Asked at the meeting whether he would invite Kim to the White House for additional talks, Trump replied: “Absolutely, I will.”
Trump lavished praise on Kim after the talks, calling him “a very worthy, very smart negotiator” and saying that he planned to meet with the North Korean premier “many times.”
The summit on Tuesday culminated in the signing of an agreement that commits the U.S. to unspecified “security guarantees” in exchange for the eventual denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Trump called the agreement “pretty comprehensive,” though the details of it — including what guarantees the U.S. is offering — remain murky.
After the summit, the U.S. president said he would suspend joint military exercises with South Korea, signaling a concession to the North. But he also said he expected Kim to move quickly to dismantle his country’s nuclear arsenal.
–Updated at 8:57 a.m.