President Donald Trump said Thursday it would not be an acceptable outcome if North Korea doesn't denuclearize, adding he doesn't think he needs to "prepare very much" in advance of his upcoming summit with Kim Jong Un.
"They have to de-nuke," he said in the Oval Office. "If they don't denuclearize, that will not be acceptable. We cannot take sanctions off. The sanctions are extraordinarily powerful."
Trump and Kim are scheduled to meet June 12 in Singapore over North Korea's rogue nuclear program.
"I think I'm very well-prepared," Trump said. "I don't think I have to prepare very much. It's about attitude. It's about willingness to get things done, but I think I've been preparing for this summit for a long time, as has the other side."
"This isn't a question of preparation. It's a question of whether or not people want it to happen, and we'll know that very quickly," he added.
NBC reporter Peter Alexander asked what Trump would say to critics who called the meeting a "photo op."
"It's going to be much more than a photo op," he said. "I think it's a process. I've told you that many times before. I think it's not a one-meeting deal. It would be wonderful if it were. "
He said he hoped, at a minimum, to start with a "good relationship" with Kim, and he thought it would be an "exciting meeting."
The summit was originally agreed to in March, but Trump wrote a letter to Kim cancelling it last month over the latter's belligerent rhetoric toward Trump's administration. The meeting was back on, however, after Trump met with a top deputy of Kim in the Oval Office last week.