WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - Here are some of the highlights of the Reuters interview with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday.
ON POSSIBLE "MAJOR" CONFLICT WITH NORTH KOREA
"There's a chance that we could end up having a major, major, conflict with North Korea, absolutely."
QUESTION: Is that your biggest global worry at this point?
"Yes, I would say that's true, yes. ... North Korea would be certainly that."
ON GETTING SOUTH KOREA TO PAY FOR THAAD MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM
"On the THAAD system, it's about a billion dollars. I said, 'Why are we paying? Why are we paying a billion dollars? We're protecting. Why are we paying a billion dollars?' So I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. Nobody's going to do that. Why are we paying a billion dollars? It's a billion dollar system. It's phenomenal. It's the most incredible equipment you've ever seen - shoots missiles right out of the sky. And it protects them and I want to protect them. We're going to protect them. But they should pay for that, and they understand that."
ON WHETHER THE WAR AGAINST ISLAMIST EXTREMISM WILL EVER END
"Yours is the toughest question. Because at what point does it end? But we can't let them come over here. I have to say, there is an end. And it has to be humiliation. There is an end. Otherwise it's really tough. But there is an end. We are really eradicating some very bad people. When you take a look at what's going on with the cutting off of the heads. We haven't seen that since Medieval times. Right?"
ON CHINESE PRESIDENT XI'S EFFORTS TO REIN IN NORTH KOREA
"He certainly doesn't want to see turmoil and death. He doesn't want to see it. He's a good man. He's a very good man and I got to know him very well ...
We'll see how it all works out. I know he would like to be able to do something. Perhaps it's possible that he can't. But I think he'd like to be able to do something."
ON NORTH KOREAN LEADER KIM JONG UN
"He's 27 years old, his father dies, took over a regime, so say what you want but that's not easy, especially at that age. You know you have plenty of generals in there and plenty of other people that would like to do what he's doing. So I've said this before and I've, I'm just telling you, and I'm not giving him credit or not giving him credit. I'm just saying that's a very hard thing to do."
"As to whether or not he's rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he's rational."
ON NAFTA AND TRUMP'S THREAT TO TERMINATE PACT
"I get a call from Mexico yesterday, 'We hear you're going to terminate NAFTA.' I said that's right. They said, 'Is there any way we can do something without you – without termination?’ I said, 'What do you want to do?' He said, 'Well, we'd like to negotiate.' I said we'll think about it. Then I get a call, and they call me, I get a call from Justin Trudeau and he said, 'We'd like to see if we can work something out,' and I said that's fine. Because I've always - I've been very consistent. It's much less disruptive if we can make a fair trade deal than if we terminate."