U.S. Pressure on Kim to Continue as Time Set for Trump Meeting

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. campaign to economically isolate North Korea will continue, the White House press secretary said Monday, even as preparations advance for President Donald Trump’s summit next week with Kim Jong Un.

The White House set a time for Trump’s first meeting with Kim: 9 a.m. Singapore time on June 12, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. But she said there has been no change in what Trump has described as a “maximum pressure” campaign on the North Korean regime.

Trump said last week he’d avoid using the phrase because of improving relations between the two countries. “I don’t want to use that term because we’re getting along,” he said on Friday.

“Our policy hasn’t changed, and as the president stated, we have sanctions on, they’re very powerful and we would not take those sanctions off unless North Korea denuclearized,” Sanders said on Monday.

Trump aims to persuade the North Korean dictator to give up his country’s nuclear arsenal in exchange for relief from U.S. economic sanctions. He’s promised American investment in the under-developed country would follow.

The White House has been tight-lipped about Trump’s preparations for the summit. He spent the weekend at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, with some of his family.

“The president has been receiving daily briefings on North Korea from his national security team,” Sanders said.

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