Why has Donald Trump cast doubt on his June summit with Kim Jong Un?

Donald Trump has cast doubt over his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying there is a “very substantial chance” that the 12 June summit may be postponed.

“We’re moving along. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said during a meeting in the Oval Office with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. “There are certain conditions we want to happen. I think we’ll get those conditions. And if we don’t, we won’t have the meeting.”

The Guardian reports that he summit has been thrown in doubt because of the “US insistence that the summit would lead to unilateral North Korean surrender of its nuclear weapons programme”.

However, the New York Times says Trump appears open to the idea of the phased dismantling option favoured by Pyongyang, as the scale of the operation “would make it difficult to dismantle it in a single step”.

“It would certainly be better if it were all in one,” Trump said. “Does it have to be? I don’t think I want to totally commit myself.”