Trump and top Republicans vow 'bold agenda' at Camp David retreat

Donald Trump staged a show of unity on Saturday with Republican leaders and key cabinet members, insisting they were making "incredible" progress on a 2018 agenda and branding an incendiary book questioning his fitness for office a "disgrace".

Standing in a frigid hangar at a hastily convened news conference at the Camp David presidential retreat, Trump said Republicans were "very well-prepared for the coming year" after a "very strong" finish to 2017.

He praised the "incredible meetings" at Camp David, where the Republicans discussed security, military, budget and immigration issues, among other topics.

As Republican leaders took turns at the microphone to deliver pep talks, House speaker Paul Ryan promised a "very bold agenda for 2018," saying it would appeal to "Democrats and Republicans and independents."

But television networks and news websites had spent much of the morning focused on a more divisive topic – the new bombshell book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff – which raises questions about Trump's intelligence, competence and stability.

Asked about it at Camp David, Trump said that "it's a disgrace that somebody's able to... do something like that" and suggested the United States needs stronger libel laws.

Trump early on Saturday had fired off a series of tweets in which he called himself "a very stable genius" and named his two greatest assets as "mental stability and being, like, really smart."

Fire and Fury was rushed into stores on Friday after the Trump administration failed to suppress it.

The book quickly sold out in Washington and has been the talk of the town.

Trump hopes Korea talks go 'beyond the Olympics'

Following the meetings at Camp David, Trump said he hopes rare talks between North and South Korea will go "beyond the Olympics," with Washington joining the process at the "appropriate time."

The two Koreas are planning to hold their first official dialogue in more than two years to discuss the North's participation in next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea.

"I would love to see them take it beyond the Olympics," Trump said at a news conference at the Camp David presidential retreat. "And at the appropriate time, we'll get involved."

The planned dialogue comes after the North's leader Kim Jong-un warned in his New Year speech that he had a nuclear button on his desk, but also said Pyongyang could send a team to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, which open on February 9.

Seoul responded with an offer of talks. Earlier this week the hotline between the neighbours was restored after being suspended for almost two years.

The meeting is set to take place on Tuesday in the truce village of Panmunjom.

In recent months, the North has held multiple missile launches and conducted its sixth nuclear test – purportedly of a hydrogen bomb – in violation of UN resolutions banning such activity by the isolated nation.

Trump has at times taken a provocative stance toward Kim, trading personal insults with the North Korean leader and threatening to utterly destroy his regime with "fire and fury." But at other times he has called for diplomacy and a peaceful resolution to the situation.

"(Kim) knows I'm not messing around... not even a little, not even one percent. He understands that," Trump told reporters Saturday.

"(But) 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."