North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reaffirmed his commitment to "complete" denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and to a planned meeting with US President Donald Trump, according to South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
In Washington, Mr Trump signalled that preparations for a 12 June summit with Kim were going ahead, despite having called the meeting off last week.
Mr Moon and Mr Kim agreed at a surprise meeting yesterday that the possible North Korea-US summit must be held, Mr Moon told a news conference in Seoul.
"Chairman Kim and I have agreed that the June 12 summit should be held successfully, and that our quest for the Korean peninsula's denuclearisation and a perpetual peace regime should not be halted," Mr Moon said.
The meeting was the latest dramatic turn in a week of diplomatic ups and downs surrounding the prospects for an unprecedented summit between the United States and North Korea, and the strongest sign yet that the two Korean leaders are trying to keep the on-again off-again meeting on track.
The leaders of North and South Korea held a surprise meeting yesterday | https://t.co/gEgiDguKli pic.twitter.com/cih8Lz33mp
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) May 27, 2018
A statement from North Korea's state news agency KCNA said Mr Kim expressed "his fixed will" on the possibility of meeting Mr Trump as previously planned.
Mr Moon, who returned to Seoul on Thursday morning after meeting Mr Trump in Washington in a bid to keep the high-stakes US-North Korea summit on track, said he delivered a message of Mr Trump's "firm resolve" to end the hostile relationship with North Korea and pursue bilateral economic cooperation.
Mr Trump said in a letter to Mr Kim on Thursday he was cancelling the planned Singapore summit, citing North Korea's "open hostility".
Sadly, I was forced to cancel the Summit Meeting in Singapore with Kim Jong Un. pic.twitter.com/rLwXxBxFKx
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2018
However, Mr Trump said yesterday he was still looking at a 12 June date for a summit in Singapore and that talks were progressing very well.
"We're doing very well in terms of the summit with North Korea," he said at the White House. "It's moving along very nicely. So we're looking at June 12th in Singapore. That hasn't changed. So, we'll see what happens."
A White House team will leave as scheduled for Singapore this weekend to prepare for the possible summit, a White House spokeswoman said yesterday.
While maintaining that Mr Kim is committed to denuclearisation, Mr Moon acknowledged Pyongyang and Washington may have differing expectations of what that means and he urged both sides to hold working-level talks to resolve their differences.
"Even though they share the same resolve, there need to be discussions regarding the roadmap for how to make it happen, and that process could be tough," he said, declining to define "complete denuclearisation".
The Trump administration has demanded that North Korea completely and irreversibly shut its nuclear weapons programme.
Mr Kim and Mr Trump's initial decision to meet followed months of war threats and insults between the leaders over the programme.
American officials are sceptical that Mr Kim will ever fully abandon his nuclear arsenal, and Mr Moon said North Korea is not yet convinced it can trust security guarantees from the United States.
"However, during the US-South Korea summit, President Trump clearly emphasised that we may see not only the end of hostile relations but also economic cooperation if North Korea denuclearises," Mr Moon said.
"I urge North Korea and the US to confirm each other's will by sharing their problems with each other and communicating directly."
