President Donald Trump said Saturday that he is open to talking to North Korea, but not without preconditions.
Trump said: “Absolutely, I would do that. I have no problem with that at all,” when speaking at an impromptu press briefing at Camp David, Maryland, after he was asked a question about whether he’d speak with Kim Jong Un.
This comes on the heels of North Korea expressing a desire to attend the 2018 winter Olympics in PyeongChang, and the North and South having an unexpected 20-minute phone call that reopened the cross-border hotline ahead of an upcoming meeting between the two nations to discuss the Olympics.
The U.S. and South Korea also agreed not to hold military exercises during the Winter Olympics this year, which was a growing conflict with North Korea.
Trump has made it widely known that the U.S. is willing to use any military option available if North Korea continues its erratic and belligerent behavior while developing and testing nuclear weapons.
Trump also said at the press conference that he “always believes in talking,” and that the contact between North and South Korea, as well as the North attending the Olympics, is a “big start.”
“He knows I’m not messing around,” Trump said about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. “If something can come out of those talks, that would be a great thing for all of humanity.”
