NORTH KOREA/SANCTIONS/SINGAPORE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump said Thursday [6-7-18] next week’s planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was ‘ready to go’ but ‘subject always to change…’ Mr. Trump is set to travel to Singapore after this weekend’s Group of Seven summit in Canada for the meeting with Mr. Kim, which he said Thursday he hoped would be ‘very fruitful…’The White House last week said that it was holding off a fresh round of sanctions against North Korea to focus on preserving the summit between the two leaders on June 12 in Singapore. Shortly afterward, Mr. Trump scaled back his language and expectations, promising Friday to drop talk of ‘maximum pressure’ on Pyongyang. Mr. Trump was meeting with Mr. Abe on Thursday for the second time in less than two months, as the Japanese prime minister seeks to press the U.S. to stick to a hard line on North Korea. Mr. Abe, in his meeting with Mr. Trump, said he wanted to ensure there was the ‘utmost policy coordination’ between the U.S. and Japan on the approach to next week’s summit. He also reiterated Tokyo’s concern about Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and ’80s. Japan is seeking the return of at least 12 citizens it says were kidnapped by North Korea.”
-Rebecca Ballhaus, “Trump Says Summit With North Korea Will Be ‘Much More Than a Photo Op,’” The Wall Street Journal, June 7, 2018 1:28 pm