LA MALBAIE: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would know within a minute whether something good will come of his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, which he described as a “mission of peace.”

“I think within the first minute I’ll know. Just my touch, my feel. That’s what I do,” Trump told reporters at a news conference at the G7 summit in Quebec.

“And if I think it won’t happen — I’m not going to waste my time. I don’t want to waste his time.” The main issue for the June 12 summit in Singapore is the US demand for North Korea to abandon a nuclear weapons programme that now threatens the United States.

“I have a clear objective, but I have to say — it’s going to be something that will always be spur of the moment,” Trump said. “You don’t know. This has not been done before at this level. This is a leader who really is an unknown personality.”

North Korea has rejected giving up its arsenal unilaterally and defends its nuclear and missile programs as a deterrent against what it sees as US aggression. The United States stations 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean War.

“I feel really confident. It’s never been done, it’s never been tested,” said Trump.

“So we are going in with a really positive spirit.”

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2018