There is a “substantial chance” the June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “may not work out” after all, President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday while meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the White House Oval Office.

“Well, we are moving along, and we’ll see what happens. There are certain conditions that we want, and I think we will get those conditions. And if we don’t, we don’t have the meeting,” Trump told reporters while meeting with Moon.

“And frankly, it has a chance to be a great, great meeting for North Korea and a great meeting for the world. If it doesn’t happen, maybe it will happen later. Maybe it will happen at a different time. But we will see,” he added. “Whether or not it happens, you’ll be knowing pretty soon. But we are talking right now.”

Trump announced via Twitter on May 10 that he and Kim would meet for the “highly anticipated” summit in Singapore to discuss denuclearization of the peninsula, noting that both leaders would “try to make it a very special moment for World Peace.”

If the summit nobody expected still occurs, it will mark the first time a U.S. president has met with North Korea’s leader since the communist nation was formed in 1948.

But Kim threw a wrench into the mix a week ago when he threatened to sink the summit after he canceled a meeting with South Korean officials because of South Korea’s annual joint military exercise with the United States.

Trump insisted that North Korea “has a chance to be a great country” if Kim agrees to meet with him for the summit and works to fulfill U.S. demands for denuclearization.

“It can’t be a great country under the circumstances that they are living right now. But North Korea has a chance, really, to be a great country,” Trump said. “I think they should seize the opportunity, and we’ll soon find out whether or not they want to do that.”

If North Korea accepts Trump’s demands, the president promised he would “guarantee” Kim’s safety.

“I think that he will be extremely happy if something works out,” Trump said, warning that “denuclearization” is non-negotiable and must take place.

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“I have a very strong idea how it takes place. And it must take place,” Trump said.

The president also suggested that Kim may have changed his mind about participating in the summit after he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom Trump called a “world-class poker player,” for the second time in recent months.

“I will say I’m a little disappointed, because when Kim Jong-un had the meeting with President Xi in China … I think there was a little change in attitude from Kim Jong-un. So I don’t like that,” Trump warned.

“But there was a difference when Kim Jong-un left China the second time … There was a somewhat different attitude after that meeting, and I’m a little surprised. Now, maybe nothing happened. I’m not blaming anybody, but I’m just saying, maybe nothing happened and maybe it did.”

Trump’s criticism of Xi came two days after Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin told Fox News host Chris Wallace that the U.S. is “putting the trade war” with China “on hold,” after making “meaningful progress” and reaching a tentative agreement over the weekend.

PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.

(photo credit, homepage image: Donald Trump, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore; photo credit, article image: President of the United States Donald J. Trump at CPAC, CC BY 2.0, by Michael Vadon)