I have 'largely solved' North Korean nuclear problem: Donald Trump

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump today claimed that he has "largely solved" the North Korean nuclear problem and has saved a lot of money by suspending "war games" with South Korea.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House Trump defended his decision to unilaterally halt joint military exercises with South Korea after the summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

"Military -- I call them war games. I hated them from the day I came in. I said, 'Why aren't we being reimbursed?" he said, responding to questions on the criticism he is facing on his decision to stop military exercises with South Korea.

"We pay for it. We pay millions and millions of dollars for planes and all of this. It's my term. I said I'd like to halt it, because it's bad to be negotiating and doing it. It costs us a lot of money. I saved a lot of money. That's a good thing for us, Trump said.

He claimed he has "largely solved" the North Korean nuclear problem following his summit with Kim.

Trump said president Barack Obama told him before he took office that the "most dangerous problem" for the US was North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

"I have solved that problem...Now we're getting it memorialised and all but that problem is largely solved," Trump said.

Trump said he does not want to see a nuclear weapon destroy the Americans.

"I don't want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family. I want to have a good relationship with North Korea. I want to have a good relationship with many other countries, he said.

And what I've done, if you remember, if you're fair -- which most of you aren't -- but if you're fair, when I came in, people thought we were probably going to war with North Korea. If we did, millions of people would have been killed, he said.

I don't mean like a -- people are saying 100,000. Seoul has 28 million people 30 miles off the border. You would have had 30, 40, 50 million people killed. Who knows what would have happened? I came in; that was what I inherited. I should have never inherited. That should have been solved long before I got there. I did a great job this weekend, Trump said.

"We signed a very good document," he said.

"But more importantly than the document, I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un," he said, adding that they have "great chemistry together." "That's a very important thing," he said.

"I can now call him. I gave him a very direct number. He can now call me if he has any difficulty. We have communication."

The North Koreans, he said, are doing so much.

Now we're well on our way to get denuclearization. And the agreement says there will be total denuclearization. Nobody wants to report that. So the only thing I did was I met. I got along with him great. He is great. We have a great chemistry together. That's the good thing, not a bad thing, said the US president.

The US-N Korea agreement, he said, is going to be great for them too, because now, North Korea can develop, and North Korea can become a great country economically.

It can become whatever they want. But there won't be nuclear weapons, and they won't be aimed at you and your family, he said.