Updated

President Donald Trump said Saturday he would be open to talking with the North Korean dictator he has nicknamed "Little Rocket Man."

Trump, who last year took his chief diplomat to task for talking about negotiations with the nuclear-armed North, told reporters at Camp David that some dialogue with Kim Jong Un was not out of the question. This, as the dictator has inflamed tensions on the world stage with his nation's aggressive pursuit of a nuclear weapons and missile program.

"Sure, I always believe in talking," Trump said, according to a report in The AP on Saturday. "Absolutely I would do that, I wouldn't have a problem with that at all." But he was quick to add that any talks would come with conditions, and he did not specify terms.

The first formal talks between North and South in more than two years are set to take place in a border town on the Korean peninsula on Tuesday as the rivals try to find ways to cooperate on the  Winter Olympics in Seoul -- and perhaps generally improve relations.

"Right now they're talking Olympics. It's a start, it's a big start," Trump said  after meetings with GOP leaders in Congress and Cabinet members on the Whie House's legislative goals for this new year.

The AP quote Trump sas saying that "if something can happen and something can come out of those talks, that would be a great thing for all of humanity. That would be a great thing for the world."

"You have to have a certain attitude and you have to be prepared to do certain things and I'm totally prepared to do that," Trump said, maintaining that his tough words on the North Korea situation helped persuade the North to sit down with the South.

Trump and Kim have traded barbs recently about their nuclear arsenals and their respective nuclear "buttons."