U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday (June 7^th) that everything was "ready to go" for his summit next week with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, as he welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the White House for preparatory talks.

U.S. President Donald Trump greets Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe upon his arrival at the White House for meetings in Washington, DC. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP)

"The summit is all ready to go," Trump told reporters. "It's all going along very fine. I hope it continues on this track."

Trump and Abe will hold a joint press conference at the White House in the early afternoon, before heading to Canada for what promises to be a tense Group of Seven summit clouded by the U.S. leader's aggressive trade policies.

Since the first inkling that a Trump-Kim summit could be on the cards, Japan has repeatedly insisted that Washington be mindful not to let its guard down with the nuclear-armed regime in Pyongyang.

And by coming to Washington to see Trump for the second time in less than two months, Abe wants to be sure to get his point across to the U.S. president, amid the intense diplomatic flurry over the future of the Korean peninsula./.

VNF/AFP