President Donald Trump said he did raise the issue of human rights with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his summit despite media reports that he would not do so.
“It was discussed relatively briefly compared to denuclearization. That is where we started and ended. He wants to do things. Very good negotiator,” Trump replied, confirming that the subject was specifically raised during his negotiations. “It is a rough situation over there, no question about it and we did discuss it today pretty strongly, knowing the main purpose of what we are doing. But discussed it at good length, we will do something on it,” he continued.
NBCNews reported ahead of the summit that human rights was not on the agenda and was widely circulated ahead of the landmark event:
NBC News cites two US officials saying the US has decided not to bring up human rights at all during talks tomorrow. What a turn from January, when Trump recognized NKean defector Ji Seong-ho & the Warmbier family at the State of the Union address https://t.co/9Jbo5eNgB4
— Megha Rajagopalan (@meghara) June 11, 2018