The leaders of some countries or their representatives or spokespersons released public statements about the 2018 North Korea–United States summit. The summit received a mixed international reaction, with many countries expressing praise or hope for achieving a peace deal from the summit.
Pre-summit
Countries
Australia
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop argued that the Trump–Kim summit is a tough diplomatic solution, and that might bring concrete commitments to complete a verifiable denuclearization. It should be achieved for world peace. The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula should be done even if it is a long drawn out diplomatic process.
China
Chinese President Xi Jinping had a dialogue with President Donald Trump on March 11 about the 2018 North Korea–United States summit. China expressed its appreciation for attempts at resolving the North Korean nuclear issue through diplomacy with the North Korea–United States summit. The White House also believes that North Korea will keep its promise to suspend ICBM launches and North Korean nuclear tests before the North Korea–United States summit in May.
Germany
Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel expressed her opinion about Kim–Trump talks; she views "gleams of hope" of achieving the resolution of North's nuclear weapons. Merkel also remarked, "it would be marvellous if we could experience a détente".
Japan
Shortly after the summit was announced, Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe told reporters he appreciated "North Korea's change" and attributed the diplomatic change in tone to the coordinated sanctions campaign by the United States, Japan, and South Korea. Abe, however, cautioned Trump not to strike a compromise on North Korea's missile program that would leave Japan exposed to shorter-range missiles that do not reach the US mainland or relieve pressure on North Korea too soon before complete denuclearization. Abe also expressed a desire to hold a bilateral meeting with North Korea on the issue of abductions of Japanese citizens, pressing Trump to raise the matter at the summit.
Russia
Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov embraced the meeting, saying that "it is a step in the right direction" instead of "fire and fury". He also expressed that a legal arrangement between the US and North Korea would be crucial for normalizing the perilous situation around the Korean Peninsula. On May 31, 2018, Sergey Lavrov met with Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang to discuss denuclearization by easing sanctions to speed up the process of disarmament, and in turn, he received a favorable response from the North Korean leader. Lavrov invited the North Korean leader to visit Russia. He told Kim that Moscow supported peace and progress on the Korean peninsula and highly valued a declaration signed by Pyongyang and Seoul. Earlier, Lavrov met with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-ho and others at the Supreme People's Assembly building in the North Korean capital. Lavrov and his deputy Igor Morgulov paid their respects at a monument to Soviet soldiers in Pyongyang's Moranbong Park. The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier Lavrov and Ri were expected to discuss "vital issues of bilateral relations and key international and regional issues".
President Vladimir Putin pledged to ensure that the talks would be a success, suggesting that all regional players such as Russia should provide North Korea with guarantees in order to have a fruitful meeting. He called for the international community to help North Korea economically as they abandon their nuclear weapons program.
Singapore
Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen announced that they would be willing to pay a certain amount of budget for the US and North Korean delegations' residence and meeting place for the success of the historic Trump–Kim summit.
South Korea
South Korean President Moon Jae-in expressed hopes for both Trump and Kim to take "bold decisions" in their first meeting, acknowledging the "long process" of North Korea's denuclearization. On the Monday preceding the talks he discussed the summit with Trump in a 40-minute phone call in which Moon told him that the South Korean people were praying to "create a miraculous result" in the talks. Following the announcement of cancellation by Trump of the summit in late May, Moon stated that he was left perplexed and felt "very regrettable" as he and Kim held a second and unplanned summit at Panmunjom to help resolve the lapse of disagreement between Kim and Trump. South Korea hailed the summit as "talks of the century" during the summit.