The White House did, however, announce the details of a separate meeting later this month between Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, as the U.S. administration pushed back on a report that Trump is considering the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the allied nation. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the date and location have been set for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, building suspense for the unprecedented talks, as South Korea said it would oppose a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the area. Though no location for the summit has been given as of yet, Trump hinted earlier this week that the demilitarized zone between both North and South Korea would be a prime spot, though he said that Singapore would also be an excellent venue. Trump said this week that the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, between North and South Korea would be an excellent venue for the planned summit, but that Singapore was also a possible site. Trump, a former reality TV star who likes to build suspense about upcoming presidential news, did not give a date or location for the North Korea summit and White House officials did not immediately provide further clarity. “We now have a date and we have a location, we’ll be announcing it soon,” Trump told reporters outside the White House, right before he left Washington, D.C., for Texas. He’s previously said the summit was planned for May or early June. A meeting with Kim seemed an outlandish possibility just a few months ago when the two leaders were trading threats and insults over North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons. Seven days later South Korea President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met and signed the Panmunjom Declaration, stating that “there will be no more war on the Korean Peninsula and thus a new era of peace has begun.”

The two leaders agreed to work to officially end the Korean War, seek to reunify their countries, and begin a process of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. Trump said that withdrawing U.S. forces from South Korea is “not on the table.” Some 28,500 U.S. forces are based in the allied nation, a military presence that has been preserved to deter North Korea since the war ended in 1953 without a peace treaty. “Now I have to tell you, at some point into the future, I would like to save the money,” Trump said later as he prepared to board Air Force One. “You know we have 32,000 troops there but I think a lot of great things will happen but troops are not on the table. The New York Times said Trump had asked the Pentagon for withdrawal options, although Trump said it was not true and Bolton called the report "utter nonsense." “We’re having very substantive talks with North Korea and a lot of things have already happened with respect to the hostages, and I think you’re going to see very good things.
U.S. President Donald Trump announces that he will meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on May 22.