Chung Eui-yong (left), head of South Korea's presidential National Security Office, shakes hands with Kim Jong Un at their meeting in North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said his country is prepared to give up its nuclear weapons program and hold talks with the US in return for security guarantees, South Korea officials say.

The claim was made by South Korean envoys returning after a two-day trip to the North that included dinner with Kim himself — the first time he has met officials from Seoul since he succeeded his father as leader of North Korea in 2011.

"The North side clearly affirmed its commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and said it would have no reason to possess nuclear weapons should the safety of itsregime be guaranteed and military threats against North Korea removed," Chung Eui-yong, the top security adviser for South Korea's president, said according to the South's Yonhap news agency.

He added that Kim and South Korea President Moon Jae-in would meet face-to-face at the end of April in the joint security area of Panmunjom.

In his first response to the news, President Donald Trump tweeted a link to a Drudge Report story about Kim hosting South Korean envoys, adding, "We will see what happens!"

He later tweeted that "possible progress" was being made by South Korea, but warned the North that the US was "ready to go hard in either direction!"

Possible progress being made in talks with North Korea. For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made