(4th LD) Trump says N. Korea summit could still happen June 12

(ATTN: ADDS Trump's Twitter message in paras 4-5)

WASHINGTON/SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could still take place June 12, after canceling the summit a day earlier.

Trump said the two countries are talking and both sides want to have the meeting that was supposed to be held in Singapore.

"We'll see what happens. It could even be the 12th," Trump told reporters before departing the White House. "We're talking to them now. They very much want to do it. We'd like to do it. We're going to see what happens."

Trump later tweeted that "very productive talks" are currently under way between the United States and North Korea, adding that if held, the meeting will likely take place in Singapore on June 12.

"We are having very productive talks with North Korea about reinstating the Summit which, if it does happen, will likely remain in Singapore on the same date, June 12th, and, if necessary, will be extended beyond that date," he said.

Trump canceled the meeting a day earlier, citing "tremendous anger and open hostility" from North Korea. He and Kim had agreed to meet to talk about the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons program, which sent tensions soaring last year. But Pyongyang recently issued a series of statements calling out the U.S. for demanding its "unilateral" denuclearization and threatening to pull out of the summit.

In a statement late Wednesday, the communist regime challenged the U.S. to a "nuclear-to-nuclear showdown" and called U.S. Vice President Mike Pence a "political dummy."

North Korea responded to the cancellation in a strikingly conciliatory tone.

"We would like to make known to the U.S. side once again that we have the intent to sit with the U.S. side to solve problem regardless of ways at any time," Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan said in a statement carried by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency.

"We remain unchanged in our goal and will to do everything we could for peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and humankind, and we, broad-minded and open all the time, have the willingness to offer the U.S. side time and opportunity," he said.

Trump welcomed the statement on Twitter early Friday.

"Very good news to receive the warm and productive statement from North Korea," he wrote. "We will soon see where it will lead, hopefully to long and enduring prosperity and peace. Only time (and talent) will tell!"

Asked by reporters if North Korea was playing games, Trump said, "Everybody plays games. You know that better than anybody."

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis fueled hope that the summit will still take place.

"We have got some, possibly some good news on the Korea summit, where it may, if our diplomats can pull it off, may have it back on, even," he told reporters before meeting with his Danish counterpart at the Pentagon. "Our president just sent out a note about that a few moments ago ... that is a usual give and take, you know, of trying to put together big summits and stuff. The diplomats are still at work."

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, in a phone call Thursday that the U.S. has a "clear will" for continued dialogue with the North, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.

The two also agreed to work to create conditions for dialogue with the North until the regime "embraces denuclearization," the State Department noted.

And the White House maintained that it will be ready in any event.

"Look, we're always going to be prepared and if the meeting takes place on June 12th, we'll be ready," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters.
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