WASHINGTON — President Trump reopened the door Friday to a high-stakes summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a day after aborting the meeting because of what he said was open hostility and nuclear threats from Pyongyang.

Trump said it is even possible that a meeting could take place on June 12 in Singapore as originally planned, although that appeared unlikely. The optimism threw a new twist into a chaotic run-up to what would be the most significant foreign policy gambit of Trump’s presidency.

“We’ll see what happens. We are talking to them now,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Friday morning. “They very much want to do it. We’d like to do it.”

“It could even be the 12th,” he said.

Just 24 hours earlier, the White House had released a letter from Trump to Kim in which Trump blamed the cancellation on “tremendous anger and hostility” coming from North Korea and said that the rogue nation had “lost a great opportunity for lasting peace.”

A senior administration official said Thursday that North Korea had stood up U.S. officials for a planning meeting, and had balked at finalizing logistics.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.