U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said in an interview Sunday that President Donald Trump would seek to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis in his first term, adding that if Pyongyang backs out of a landmark summit scheduled for next month, the two countries would be "on the path to conflict."

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," the Republican senator said that Trump was determined to see a through a deal in which the North Korean regime of Kim Jong Un relinquishes its nuclear weapons program. Trump is due to meet Kim in Singapore on June 12 in a summit that would see the leaders of the two countries hold talks for the first time.

But in the first major sign of trouble amid warming ties, the North on Wednesday abruptly threatened to cancel the hotly anticipated summit if Washington presses ahead with its demand that Pyongyang unilaterally relinquish its nuclear arsenal and continued to speak of a "Libya-style" denuclearization process.