U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday a time and place have been determined for the planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“We now have a date and we have a location,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn before leaving for the southern city of Dallas, Texas. He added details of the historic summit would be announced soon.
Trump said Washington and Pyongyang are engaged in “very substantive talks.”
He added that “a lot of things have already happened with respect to the hostages” — yet another hint that North Korea could soon release three detained Korean-Americans.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a newly-added member of Trump’s legal team, said earlier in the week the Americans were expected to have been freed from a labor camp Thursday. The U.S. government is reviewing reports that the hostages had recently been relocated form a labor camp to a hotel near the capital of Pyongyang.
Tony Kim and Kim Hak-Song were teaching at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, the only private university in the country. They were separately detained in 2017, and accused of participating in anti-state activities and trying to overthrow the government.
The third detainee, Kim Dong-Chul, was arrested in Rason on the northeast tip of North Korea in October 2015. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor in 2016 after being convicted of espionage.
Trump also told reporters the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea would be not be “on the table” for discussion with his North Korean counterpart. The New York Times reported Friday that Trump ordered the Defense Department to cut the number of U.S. troops who are stationed on the Korean peninsula. The Department of Defense said in a statement that the Times story is false. U.S. National Security Adviser called the story “utter nonsense.”
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