Trump Says He Could Sign Peace Agreement With North Korea

President Donald Trump said he may sign a peace agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their June 12 summit.

“We could absolutely sign an agreement,” Trump said Thursday during a news conference at the White House on Thursday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “We’re looking at it. We’re talking about it with them.”

“That’s probably the easy part,” he added. “The hard part remains after that.”

Trump predicted “great success” in the talks with Kim. He added that if the talks don’t go well he has a list of 300 additional sanctions against North Korea he’s ready to impose.

Trump and Abe met at the White House days before the summit. It will be the first face-to-face meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting U.S. president.

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. The White House wants Kim to commit to a timetable to surrender the weapons at the summit. Trump has promised investment in the under-developed country would follow.

Abe has been pressing the U.S. ensure it protects his country’s security concerns such as addressing North Korean short-range missiles capable of hitting Japan, maintaining U.S. military deployments in the region, and returning Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea. Trump, meanwhile, has suggested that he may lean on Japan and South Korea to contribute financial assistance to North Korea as an incentive for Pyongyang to take steps toward denuclearization.