South Korean President Moon Jae-in has held a surprise meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to ensure a summit between Mr Kim and US President Donald Trump goes off successfully, South Korean officials said.
It was the clearest sign yet that the on-again, off-again summit between Mr Trump and Mr Kim is likely to be held as initially agreed, in Singapore on 12 June.
The unannounced meeting at the Panmunjom border village between Mr Moon and Mr Kim came a month after they held the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade at the same venue and declared they would work towards a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
"The two leaders candidly exchanged views about making the North Korea-US summit a successful one and about implementing the Panmunjom Declaration," South Korea's presidential spokesman said in a statement.
He did not confirm how the secret meeting was arranged or which side asked for it.
Mr Moon, who returned to Seoul earlier this week after a meeting with Mr Trump, will announce details of the meeting with Mr Kim tomorrow morning.
Mr Trump said yesterday that Washington was having "productive talks" with Pyongyang about reinstating the 12 June meeting, just a day after cancelling it.
Mr Moon is the only South Korean leader to have met a North Korean leader twice, both times in the DMZ, a symbol of unending hostilities after the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
Former South Korean leaders Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun met with Kim Jong-un's late father, Kim Jong-il, in Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007.
Politico magazine reported that an advance team of 30 White House and US State Department officials was preparing to leave for Singapore later this weekend.
Reuters reported earlier this week the team was scheduled to discuss the agenda and logistics for the summit with North Korean officials.
The delegation was to include White House deputy chief of staff Joseph Hagin and deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel, US officials said.
Mr Trump said in a Twitter post late yesterday: "We are having very productive talks about reinstating the Summit."
We are having very productive talks with North Korea about reinstating the Summit which, if it does happen, will likely remain in Singapore on the same date, June 12th., and, if necessary, will be extended beyond that date.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2018
Mr Trump had earlier indicated the summit could be salvaged after welcoming a conciliatory statement from North Korea saying it remained open to talks.
"It was a very nice statement they put out," Mr Trump told reporters at the White House. "We'll see what happens - it could even be the 12th."
"We're talking to them now. They very much want to do it. We'd like to do it," he said.
The comments came just a day after Mr Trump cancelled the meeting, citing Pyongyang's "open hostility".
This afternoon, the White House announced that its team will leave for Singapore as scheduled to prepare for a possible Trump-Kim summit.
After years of tension over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme, Mr Kim and Mr Trump agreed this month to hold what would be the first meeting between a serving US president and a North Korean leader.
The plan followed months of war threats and insults between the leaders over North Korea's development of missiles capable of reaching the United States.
Mr Trump scrapped the meeting in a letter to Mr Kim on Thursday after repeated threats by North Korea to pull out over what it saw as confrontational remarks by US officials demanding unilateral disarmament.
Mr Trump cited North Korean hostility in cancelling the summit.
