White House says North Koreans engaging as preparations for summit continue

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that “the North Koreans have been engaging” and the U.S. continues to prepare for a June summit in a statement released Tuesday.

“The United States continues to actively prepare for President Trumps expected summit with leader Kim in Singapore,” she said. “President Trump will meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan on June 7thhere at the White House. North Korean Vice Chairman of the Central Committee, Kim Yong Chol, is traveling to New York and will meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later this week.”

The U.S. also has a delegation meeting with a North Korean delegation in the DMZ consisting of Sung Kim, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines; Allison Hooker, Director for Korea for the NSC; and Randy Schriver, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs at the Department of Defense. The delegation plans to have additional meetings this week.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin is leading the U.S. pre-advance team in Singapore where they are coordinating the logistics of the summit.

Ambassador John Bolton has talked with various South Korean and Japanese counterparts “virtually every day” over the last few weeks and spoke to his South Korean counterpart this morning.

The White House wants Americans to know that they are working very hard to put the summit together, especially after The New York Times manufactured a story claiming that Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said that having the summit on June 12 was “impossible.” A recording of the briefing released afterward, in which the Times said Shah made the statement, shows that he clearly did not.