WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the U.S. and North Korea (all times EDT):
6:10 p.m.
President Donald Trump will host South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House in late May.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the visit is scheduled for May 22. Sanders says the leaders will discuss Trump’s upcoming meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Moon and Kim met in late April at the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily fortified border between North and South Korea.
Trump said Friday that a time and place have been set for his landmark meeting with Kim and that “we’ll be announcing it soon.”
The meeting - expected to be held in late May or early June - would be the first between a sitting American president and the leader of North Korea.
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3:10 p.m.
President Donald Trump is touting his administration’s tough approaches to North Korea and Iran.
Trump, speaking at the annual National Rifle Association in Dallas on Friday, says it was his “position of strength” that is bringing Pyongyang to the negotiating table.
He is mocking critics’ concerns that he would start a war with North Korea and instead says “things were going really well.”
Hours earlier, Trump said a date and place for his upcoming summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un would be announced in the coming days.
The president is also repeating his criticism of his predecessor’s negotiations with Iran to halt its nuclear weapons program. Trump will make a decision later this month as to whether the United States will remain in the deal.
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10:40 a.m.
President Donald Trump says withdrawing U.S. troops from South Korea is ’not on the table’ as he prepares for a historic summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Trump says: “Troops are not on the table.”
Trump is addressing a report that he had asked the Pentagon to prepare plans for scaling back the U.S. military presence in South Korea, as he has complained that South Korea does not do enough to financially support that commitment. National security adviser John Bolton called that report, in The New York Times, “utter nonsense” in a statement Friday.
Trump announced Friday that a time and place for his meeting with Kim has been set and will be announced shortly.
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10:20 a.m.
President Donald Trump says the time and place has been set for his historic meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Speaking to reporters Friday from the White House South Lawn before departing for Dallas, Trump says “we now have a date and we have a location. We’ll be announcing it soon.”
Trump suggested Monday that he was looking for the meeting to be held at the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas. That’s where Kim met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in last Friday.
On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence postponed a planned trip to Brazil at the end of May to free up resources for Trump’s meeting with Kim.
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8:12 a.m.
The White House is denying a published report that President Donald Trump is seeking options to reduce the U.S. troop presence on the Korean peninsula.
The New York Times reported Friday that Trump ordered the Pentagon to prepare options for drawing down U.S. troops in South Korea, just weeks before he meets with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Trump has expressed frustration that South Korea does not contribute enough to fund U.S. forces that bolster its defenses.
National security adviser John Bolton said Friday that Trump “has not asked the Pentagon to provide options for reducing American forces stationed in South Korea.”
The White House hasn’t said whether Trump is willing to place U.S. troop levels on the negotiating table when he meets with Kim.
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