Trump was speaking with reporters on the White House lawn after meeting with a senior North Korean official in the Oval Office.
Trump first told reporters the letter from Kim was “a very nice letter … a very interesting letter” but then said he had not opened it.
Trump appeared to significantly lower expectations for the outcome of the historic summit, frequently describing it as the start of a process and not the place where the two leaders were likely to sign any agreement. He said a number of summits might be required.
Answering a question to whether there will be other North Korea summits, Trump said, “I told him I think you’re going to have probably others. Hey, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we walked out and everything was settled all of a sudden from sitting down for a couple of hours? No, I don’t see that happening. But I see over a period of time — and frankly, I said ‘take your time, take your time, it’s going to remain as is, but take your time’. One thing I did do and it was very important: We had hundreds of new sanctions ready to go on.”