Press Conference by President Trump: June 12, 2018 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Secured the halt of all missile and nuclear tests for - how long has it been? Seven months? You haven't had a missile go up. For seven months, you haven't had a nuclear test; you haven't had a nuclear explosion. I remember a nuclear event took place - 8.8 in the Richter scale. And they announced - I heard it on the radio - they announced that a massive - you know, an earthquake took place somewhere in Asia. And then they said it was in North Korea. And then they found out it was a nuclear test. I said, "I never heard of a Richter scale in the high 8s."

    And if you look, there has been no missile launches. They've blown up their missile area. That's going to take place. That has not been written into the contract. We're going to give you the exact details on that. But they secured a halt of all missiles and of all nuclear tests. They secured the closure of their single primary nuclear test site. All three of them - they're in an area that's common around each other - they secured the closure.

    They secured the commitment to destroy the missile engine testing site. That was not in your agreement. I got that after we signed the agreement. I said, "Do me a favor. You've got this missile engine testing site. We know where it is because of the heat." It's incredible the equipment we have, to be honest with you. I said, "Can you close it up?" He's going to close it up.

    We maintained the ability to continue to apply sanctions. So we're applying sanctions. Now I had 300 sanctions that I was getting ready to put on last week. And I said, you know, I can't really put on sanctions when I'm meeting with - I thought it would be very disrespectful. Three hundred very big ones, powerful ones. And I said it would be disrespectful.

    So, Jennifer, when you look at all of those things that we got - and when we got our hostages back, I didn't pay $1.8 billion in cash like the hostages that came back from Iran, which was a disgraceful situation, what took place.

    So we've gotten a lot. So when I hear somebody in the media say that President Trump has agreed to meet - like, it's not a big deal to meet. I think we should meet on a lot of different topics, not just this one. And I really believe a lot of great things can happen.

    Yes. Go ahead, please.

    Q Sir, you just listed off a lot of things that you say you got in this meeting. It wasn't too long ago, though, that you said you defined the success of this meeting by North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons.

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's what they're doing.

    Q Well, can you talk about how -

    THE PRESIDENT: Sure. That's what they're doing. I mean, I don't think the -

    Q - how you pressed Kim Jong Un for complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I did, honestly -

    Q And can you why you didn't secure those details in this agreement?

    THE PRESIDENT: Because there was no time. I'm here one day. We're together for many hours intensively, but the process is now going to take place. And I would be surprised, Mike, if they haven't even started already. They have started; they blew up their sites. They blew up their testing site.

    But I will say, he knew, prior to coming - you know, this wasn't like a surprise. It wasn't like we've never discussed it. We discussed it. Mike discussed it very strongly with his counterpart in North Korea. They knew that this was - let's say they didn't agree to that I couldn't sign any agreement. There was no agreement that could have been signed. So they understood that.

    And it wasn't a big point today because, really, this had been taken care of, more than any other thing. Because it was all about this. This has been taken care of before we got here. So when we brought that up today, you see the language. It's very strong. It's in the document.

    Yes, ma'am.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President. Could you talk about the military consequences for North Korea if they don't follow through on the commitments that you're talking about? Could there be military action?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't want to talk. Yeah, I know. That's a tough thing to talk about because I don't want to be threatening. I don't want to be threatening. They understood that. And you've seen what was, perhaps, going to happen.

    And you know, Seoul has 28 million people. We think we have big cities. You look at New York, where it has 8 million people. We think it's a big city. Seoul has 28 million people. Think of that. And it's right next to the border. It's right next to the DMZ. It's right there. I mean, if this would have happened, I think - you know, I've heard, oh, a hundred-thousand people. I think you could have lost 20 million people, 30 million people. This is really an honor for me to be doing this because I think, you know, potentially, you could have lost, you know, 30-, 40-, 50 million people. The city of Seoul, one of the biggest cities in the world, is right next to the border.

    Q You once spoke about fire and fury. Is that no longer the case?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, at that time we needed, perhaps, fire and fury. Because we could not have allowed that kind of capability from the standpoint of the United States. And certainly, Japan wasn't going to allow it either. Japan is right next door.

    Q One more thing. Mr. President, could you tell us about the video that you showed before this?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

    Q When did you show that to Kim? What was the goal there?

    THE PRESIDENT: Today. Yeah, we had it made up by some - I hope you liked it. I thought it was good. I thought it was interesting enough to show. One in English and one in Korean. And we had it made up. I showed it to him today. Actually, during the meeting - toward the end of the meeting. And I think he loved it. They were giving - we didn't have a big screen like you have the luxury of having. We didn't need it because we had it on a cassette and - an iPad. And they played it. And about eight of their representatives were watching it, and I thought they were fascinated.

    But I thought it was well done. I showed it to you because that's the future. I mean, that could very well be the future. And the other alternative is just not a very good alternative. It's just not good. But I showed it because I really want him to do something. Now, I don't think I had to show it because I really believe he wants to - I think he wants to get it done.

    Yes. Go ahead. How's Staten Island Ferry doing? Okay? He wrote the best story about me with the Staten Island Ferry. And after that, he's never written a good story.

    Q That's a long time ago, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: I don't know what happened. It's a long time ago.

    Q Mr. President, it's been a busy week for you on the international stage. You're leaving this summit here in Singapore having determined that Kim Jong Un is a talented man. You left the G7 Summit a few days ago in Canada having determined that Prime Minister Trudeau is weak and dishonest. What do you say to America's allies who worry that you might be jeopardizing our long-term alliances and who worry that you might be treating our historic friends as enemies and our historic enemies as friends?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I think it's a very fair question. I had a very good meeting with the G7. And I left the meeting. And, I'll be honest, we are being taken advantage of by virtually every one of those countries. Very, very seriously. Now, the United States, because of bad management at the top, because of Presidents that didn't care about trade or didn't understand it or whatever reason. For many years, with China being, obviously, the most successful at it, but the European Union is second - $151 billion we lost. They were represented at the meeting. And we're being taken advantage of on trade.

    Canada does have very big advantages over us in terms of trade deficits. We have a big trade deficit with Canada, I was reading, where, oh, it's actually a surplus. Not a surplus. It's either 17, but it could actually be 100. You know, they put out a document. I don't know if you saw it. They didn't want me to see it, but we found it. Perhaps they were trying to show the power they have. It's close to $100 billion a year loss with Canada.

    They don't take our farm products - many of them. They charge what was 270 percent, but somebody told me the other day that a few months ago they raised it to 295 percent for dairy products. And it's very unfair to our farmers, and it's very unfair to the people of our country - the workers, the farmers, the companies. And we are not able to trade. They have tremendous barriers up. They have tremendous tariffs.

    So when I put in a countervailing tariff just to get us up a little bit so the balance isn't so much - it's like this - they said, "Oh, that's so terrible." I said, "What's terrible?" We have to catch you a little bit. We have to have a little balance. Even if it's not complete, we have to have a little balance. I say this with many countries.

    Anyway, we came - we finished the meeting. Really, everybody was happy. And I agreed to sign something. I asked for changes; I demanded changes. And those changes were made. In fact, the picture with Angela Merkel, who I get along with very well, where I'm sitting there like this, that picture was we're waiting for the document because I wanted to see the final document as changed by the changes that I requested.

    That was a very friendly - I know it didn't look friendly, and I know it was reported like sort of nasty both ways. I was angry at her or she - actually, we were just talking, the whole group, about something unrelated to everything, very friendly, waiting for the document to come back so I could read it before I leave.

    Anyway, I left and it was very friendly. When I got onto the plane, I think that Justin probably didn't know that Air Force One has about 20 televisions, and I see the television. And he's giving a news conference about how he will not be pushed around by the United States. And I say, push him around? We just shook hands. It was very friendly.

    Look, countries cannot continue to take advantage of us on trade. The number are out. Over the last couple of years, and over the last many years - but over the last couple of years, this country has lost $800 billion on trade with other countries, the biggest one being China. Eight-hundred billion dollars. A hundred fifty-one billion with the European Union. They don't take our agricultural products, barely. They don't take a lot of what we have, and yet they send Mercedes into us, they send BMWs into us by the millions. It's very unfair, and it's very unfair to our workers. And I'm going to straighten it out. And it won't even be tough. Okay? Thank you.

    Go ahead. Go ahead.

    Q (Inaudible.)

    THE PRESIDENT: I would like to involve Congress, yes. And no, I have a good relationship with Justin Trudeau. I really did. Other than he had a news conference that he had because he assumed I was in an airplane and I wasn't watching. He learned. That's going to cost a lot of money for the people of Canada. He learned. You can't do that. You can't do that.

    We laughed. We had a very good relationship. I've had a good relationship with Justin. I have a good relationship with all. I have a very good relationship with Angela Merkel. But on NATO, we're paying 4.2 percent; she's paying 1 percent of a much smaller GDP than we have. We're paying 4.2 percent on a much larger - we're paying for - I mean, anyone can say - from 60 to 90 percent of NATO. And we're protecting countries of Europe. And then on top of it, they kill us on trade. So we just can't have it that way. It's unfair to our taxpayers and to our people.

    But no, I have a good relationship with Justin. And I have a, I think, a very good relationship with Chairman Kim right now. I really do. I think - I hope it's good because if it is, we're going to solve a very big problem. I think we've gone a long way to solving it today.

    Should we keep going for a little while? Sarah? I don't know. It's up to the legendary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Should we keep going, Sarah? Okay, we'll go. Well, I don't care. Hey, you know, it just means we get home a little later in the evening. Right?

    Yeah. Go ahead. Sure. Go ahead. Go ahead.

    Q Hi, Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: How are you?

    Q I'm good.

    THE PRESIDENT: Nice to see you.

    Q From The Straits Times of Singapore. Welcome to the country.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.

    Q I hope you enjoyed our food.

    THE PRESIDENT: Beautiful country. I did.

    Q I just wanted to find out. You described this as a process. What is the immediate next step? Is there some ongoing dialogue -

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes. We're getting together next week to go into the details.

    Q And that's (inaudible)?

    THE PRESIDENT: Secretary Pompeo. Yeah. Next week, with John Bolton and our entire team, to go over the details and to get this stuff done. We want to get it done; he wants to get it done. We're also working very much with South Korea. We're working with Japan. We're working with China, to a lesser extent, but we're working with China.

    Q And you are coming back to Singapore?

    THE PRESIDENT: I would come back gladly. Your Prime Minister was fantastic. We were with him yesterday. He's done a great job. It was very welcoming. It really, probably had - it probably made a difference, actually. It's a great place.

    Thank you very much.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes, ma'am.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President. What was it about that first interaction with Chairman Kim this morning that that made you decide not to walk away after you said that you would know within the first minute if he was sincere or not?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. I've said that about relationships. I've said that about people. You know in the first second. Now, I was generous. I said five seconds. But you know in the first second, in some cases. Sometimes that doesn't work out. But sometimes it does.