WASHINGTON : US President Donald Trump said on Friday he plans to call North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sunday, following their summit in Singapore this week.
“I’m going to be actually calling North Korea,” Trump told Fox News in an interview when asked what he planned to do on Father’s Day.
The president later told reporters in an impromptu news conference on the White House lawn he had given Kim a phone number to allow him to reach Trump directly, reports Reuters.
“He can now call me if he has any difficulties, I can call him,” Trump said.
Following their meeting in Singapore on Tuesday, Trump and Kim issued a joint statement that reaffirmed the North’s commitment to “work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” while Trump “committed to provide security guarantees.”
Democratic critics in the United States said the agreement was short on detail and the Republican president had made too many concessions to Kim, whose country is under U.N. sanctions for its nuclear and weapons programs and is widely condemned for human rights abuses.
Asked about defending Kim’s human rights record, Trump told reporters, “you know why, I don’t want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family.. I want to have a good relationship with North Korea.”