Trump says meeting with DPRK's Kim 'will absolutely happen'

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US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his meeting with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s top leader Kim Jong Un "will absolutely happen."

"On Singapore, we'll see. It could very well happen," Trump told the media while departing for New York at the White House's South Lawn.

He said the fate of the on-again-off-again June 12 meeting will be decided "next week," adding that it "will be a great thing" for the DPRK if the meeting comes true.

US President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he walks across the South Lawn while departing the White House, May 23, 2018, in Washington, DC. /VCG Photo

Handpicked aides – including deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin and deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel – are travelling to the Southeast Asian city state designated to host the summit, officials said.

They are expected to meet their DPRK counterparts and iron out details of the meeting.

A day earlier, Trump hinted that his scheduled meeting with Kim may be delayed.

China's top diplomat on Wednesday expressed hope for a successful meeting.

"If you want to solve the moment now is the time, if you want peace now is the time, if you want to make history now is the time," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Washington, alongside his counterpart Mike Pompeo.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (R) shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi following a news conference in the Benjamin Franklin Room at the State Department's Harry S. Truman headquarters building, May 23, 2018, in Washington, DC. /VCG Photo

Pompeo responded to maintain pressure on the DPRK until the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

He also expressed hopes that the Kim-Trump summit would transform a global challenge that has been threatening the world for a long time.

Pompeo said earlier on Wednesday the US is prepared to walk away from nuclear negotiations with the DPRK if the summit heads in the wrong direction.

He said the decision was ultimately up to Kim, whom the secretary of state has met twice in less than two months.

The DPRK's side said the future of the summit between Pyongyang and Washington was "entirely" up to the US, according to DPRK's state media KCNA.

"We will neither beg the US for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us," said DPRK's vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui, according to KCNA.

Choe said she could suggest to leader Kim that the DPRK reconsider the summit if the United States offended DPRK's goodwill.