The President of the United States said on Thursday that the North Korean leader expressed his willingness to denuclearize the Korean peninsula during the president's first term.

"Just moments ago they put on that he said very strongly that we want to denuclearize North Korea during President Trump's tenure," Donald Trump said at a campaign rally in Billings, Montana.</s>President Donald Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Thursday after the chairman signaled faith in the peace process.

“Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

According to Special Envoy of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Kim told him he had faith in the denuclearization talks and wanted them to continue.

“(Chairman Kim) said his faith in President Trump remains unchanged. He made that clear,” Chung told reporters after meeting with Kim.

Chung also said that Kim expected rewards for active denuclearization measures conducted by North Korea.

Kim also said he remained unfailingly positive about Trump.

“Chairman Kim especially stressed that he has never talked negative about President Trump to his staff or anyone else,” Chung said. “And he said he hoped to end 70 years of a hostile relationship between North Korea and the U.S., and realize denuclearization by improving the North-U.S. relationship within Trump’s first term.”</s>FARGO, N.D. -- President Donald Trump says he's expecting get a letter in the coming days that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is sending him through Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Trump tells reporters travelling with him on Air Force One that Kim's recent overtures amount to "a very positive statement what he said about me and also what he said about he wants to denuclearize during the Trump administration."

South Korean officials who met with Kim this week say they forwarded a message from Trump and that Kim gave them a message to deliver to Trump. They're not discussing the contents of the messages.

Just two weeks ago, Trump called off a planned trip by Pompeo to North Korea. Trump cited insufficient progress by the Kim on his commitment to denuclearizing.</s>SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has given his first time line to achieve denuclearization, aiming for the end of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term, and has agreed to a third summit with his South Korean counterpart, Seoul officials said on Thursday.

Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet in Pyongyang on Sept. 18-20 and discuss “practical measures” toward denuclearization, Moon’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, said a day after meeting Kim.

The summit could provide renewed momentum to talks over denuclearization between North Korea and the United States, after Trump canceled a visit to Pyongyang by his secretary of state last month citing lack of progress.

Kim told South Korean officials his faith in Trump was “unchanged” and that he wanted denuclearization and an end to hostile relations with the United States before Trump’s first term in office ends in early 2021, Chung said.

“He particularly emphasized that he has never said anything negative about President Trump,” Chung said.

The remarks represent Kim’s first timeline for dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

In previous, failed talks, North Korea has said it could consider giving up its nuclear program if the United States provided security guarantees by removing troops from South Korea and withdrawing its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from the South and Japan.

U.S. officials involved in the latest negotiations have said North Korea has refused to even start discussions about defining “denuclearization” or other key terms such as “verifiable” and “irreversible”, and has insisted the United States must first agree to simultaneous steps to reduce economic pressure.

Chung said Kim had stressed the need for the United States to reciprocate North Korea’s initial moves, which have included dismantling a nuclear test site and a missile engine facility.

The U.S. embassy in Seoul said it had no information to share on the matter.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said Kim told the South’s envoys that his “fixed stand” was to turn the Korean peninsula into “a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons, free from nuclear threat”.

Chung said Kim showed “frustration over the doubt raised by some parts of the international community about his willingness to denuclearize, and asked us to convey his message to the United States”.

“He said he would appreciate that such good faith is accepted with good faith,” Chung said. “He expressed his strong will to carry out more proactive measures toward denuclearization if action is taken in response to the North’s preemptive steps.”

U.S. officials have previously said they have already made concessions, such as halting joint military exercises with South Korea.

During his meeting with Kim, Chung delivered a message from Trump and will relay comments from Kim to U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton later on Thursday, Moon’s spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told reporters.

Trump spoke to Moon on the evening before Chung’s trip and asked Moon to act as “chief negotiator” between Washington and Pyongyang, the spokesman said.

WHAT HAPPENS FIRST?

Kim and Trump held a landmark summit in Singapore in June, in which they agreed to work toward complete denuclearization. But negotiations have made little progress, while signs North Korea has maintained work on its weapons have emerged.

Under discussion is whether denuclearization or declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War should come first.

The war ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, meaning U.S.-led U.N. forces, including South Korea, are technically still at war with the North.

“The United States shouldn’t delay any further an end-of-war declaration, which the U.S. president promised at the Singapore summit,” the North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an editorial on Thursday.

U.S. officials have said such a declaration could weaken North Korea’s incentive for denuclearization, and create uncertainty about the purpose of 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the three-year war.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Pyongyang in July, after which North Korea accused him of making “unilateral and gangster-like demands for denuclearization” while showing little interest in ending the war.

“Looks like Kim is trying to wash away worries that talks could stall or fail, knowing well that Washington is losing patience,” said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University in Seoul.

“Kim also made it clear that he needs some kind of proof Trump has abandoned the U.S.’s hostile policy before moving toward denuclearization. Kim is trying to prove his sincerity.”</s>SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has given his first time line to achieve denuclearization, aiming for the end of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term, and has agreed to a third summit with his South Korean counterpart, Seoul officials said on Thursday.

Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet in Pyongyang on Sept. 18-20 and discuss “practical measures” toward denuclearization, Moon’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, said a day after meeting Kim.

The summit could provide renewed momentum to talks over denuclearization between North Korea and the United States, after Trump canceled a visit to Pyongyang by his secretary of state last month citing lack of progress.

Kim told South Korean officials his faith in Trump was “unchanged” and that he wanted denuclearization and an end to hostile relations with the United States before Trump’s first term in office ends in early 2021, Chung said.

“He particularly emphasized that he has never said anything negative about President Trump,” Chung said.

The remarks represent Kim’s first timeline for dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

In previous, failed talks, North Korea has said it could consider giving up its nuclear program if the United States provided security guarantees by removing troops from South Korea and withdrawing its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from the South and Japan.

U.S. officials involved in the latest negotiations have said North Korea has refused to even start discussions about defining “denuclearization” or other key terms such as “verifiable” and “irreversible”, and has insisted the United States must first agree to simultaneous steps to reduce economic pressure.

Chung said Kim had stressed the need for the United States to reciprocate North Korea’s initial moves, which have included dismantling a nuclear test site and a missile engine facility.

The U.S. embassy in Seoul said it had no information to share on the matter.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said Kim told the South’s envoys that his “fixed stand” was to turn the Korean peninsula into “a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons, free from nuclear threat”.

Chung said Kim showed “frustration over the doubt raised by some parts of the international community about his willingness to denuclearize, and asked us to convey his message to the United States”.

“He said he would appreciate that such good faith is accepted with good faith,” Chung said. “He expressed his strong will to carry out more proactive measures toward denuclearization if action is taken in response to the North’s preemptive steps.”

U.S. officials have previously said they have already made concessions, such as halting joint military exercises with South Korea.

During his meeting with Kim, Chung delivered a message from Trump and will relay comments from Kim to U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton later on Thursday, Moon’s spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told reporters.

Trump spoke to Moon on the evening before Chung’s trip and asked Moon to act as “chief negotiator” between Washington and Pyongyang, the spokesman said.

WHAT HAPPENS FIRST?

Kim and Trump held a landmark summit in Singapore in June, in which they agreed to work toward complete denuclearization. But negotiations have made little progress, while signs North Korea has maintained work on its weapons have emerged.

Under discussion is whether denuclearization or declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War should come first.

The war ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, meaning U.S.-led U.N. forces, including South Korea, are technically still at war with the North.

“The United States shouldn’t delay any further an end-of-war declaration, which the U.S. president promised at the Singapore summit,” the North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an editorial on Thursday.

U.S. officials have said such a declaration could weaken North Korea’s incentive for denuclearization, and create uncertainty about the purpose of 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the three-year war.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Pyongyang in July, after which North Korea accused him of making “unilateral and gangster-like demands for denuclearization” while showing little interest in ending the war.

“Looks like Kim is trying to wash away worries that talks could stall or fail, knowing well that Washington is losing patience,” said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University in Seoul.

“Kim also made it clear that he needs some kind of proof Trump has abandoned the U.S.’s hostile policy before moving toward denuclearization. Kim is trying to prove his sincerity.”</s>FARGO, N.D. — President Donald Trump says he's expecting get a letter in the coming days that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is sending him through Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Trump tells reporters traveling with him on Air Force One that Kim's recent overtures amount to "a very positive statement what he said about me and also what he said about he wants to denuclearize during the Trump administration."

South Korean officials who met with Kim this week say they forwarded a message from Trump and that Kim gave them a message to deliver to Trump. They're not discussing the contents of the messages.

Just two weeks ago, Trump called off a planned trip by Pompeo to North Korea. Trump cited insufficient progress by the Kim on his commitment to denuclearizing.</s>Sign up for one of our email newsletters.

FARGO, N.D. – President Donald Trump says he’s expecting get a letter in the coming days that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is sending him through Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Trump tells reporters traveling with him on Air Force One that Kim’s recent overtures amount to “a very positive statement what he said about me and also what he said about he wants to denuclearize during the Trump administration.”

South Korean officials who met with Kim this week say they forwarded a message from Trump and that Kim gave them a message to deliver to Trump. They’re not discussing the contents of the messages.

Just two weeks ago, Trump called off a planned trip by Pompeo to North Korea. Trump cited insufficient progress by the Kim on his commitment to denuclearizing.</s>US President Donald Trump has said he is expecting a “positive” letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Speaking to reporters on Friday on Air Force One, Trump said that “I know that a letter is being delivered to me, a personal letter from Kim Jong Un to me,” Xinhua news agency reported.

“It was handed at the border yesterday,” Trump said. “It’s actually an elegant way… and I think it’s going to be a positive letter.”

“The letter is being delivered to me … I think it’s being brought in by Mike Pompeo,” he added.

At the conclusion of the historic Trump-Kim summit in June, the two sides issued a joint statement, in which they agreed to improve bilateral relations and work together to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the peninsula.

However, the current North Korea-US talks have been stuck in an impasse due to their differences in the scale of denuclearization, US sanctions, and whether to issue a war-ending declaration.

Kim told South Korea’s envoy on Wednesday that he firmly supports and will be devoted to completely removing the danger of armed conflicts and the horrors of war from the Korean Peninsula and turning it into a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from any nuclear threat.

Trump tweeted later on Thursday in response, thanking Kim for making such a statement and noting that “we will get it done together,” referring to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Also on Thursday, the US State Department said that special representative for North Korea issue, Stephen Biegun, will travel to the capital cities of South Korea, China and Japan on September 10-15 to discuss the denuclearization of North Korea.

Biegun “will meet with his counterparts and continue diplomatic efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea as agreed to by Chairman Kim in Singapore,” the State Department said in a statement.</s>Solo pop star; lead singer of No Doubt; mother of three and in a happy relationship with country music artist Blake Shelton – Gwen Stefani is totally, unimpeachably harmless, right?

Maybe not – for, according to one person, Stefani is the reason that Donald Trump decided to run for president. Granted, that person is Michael Moore, but let’s hear him out…

Moore’s new documentary film about Trump’s candidacy and presidency, Fahrenheit 11/9, which premieres on Thursday (September 6th) at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival, argues that Trump initially announced his bid because he found out that his salary on NBC’s ‘The Apprentice’ was lower than what Stefani was getting for ‘The Voice’ on the same network.

Is Gwen Stefani the reason why Donald Trump is president?

Therefore, he staged his announcement at the Trump Tower in early 2015 essentially as a negotiating tactic to prove his popularity deserved a pay rise.

“Trump found out that NBC was paying Gwen Stefani more on ‘The Voice’ than Trump got paid for ‘The Apprentice’,” Moore claims in the movie. “So he planned a fake announcement to run for president… in order to prove to NBC he was more popular than Gwen and [they] would give him more money.”

More: President Donald Trump will feature in season 17 of ‘Family Guy’

Late night chat show host Seth Meyers has often (reluctantly) taken credit for spurring Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential run by poking fun at him at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

But Moore, talking to The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, reckons it's simply down to jealousy and a backfired decision. He said that after NBC cut its ties with Trump after his early campaign remarks about Mexicans, the former reality TV star and real estate mogul began to see it as a realistic possibility, with no way back to ‘The Apprentice’.

“He’d been talking about running for president since 1988, but he didn’t really want to be president,” Moore told them. “There’s no penthouse in the White House. And he doesn’t want to live in a black city. He was trying to pit NBC against another network, but it just went off the rails.”</s>SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has given his first time line for denuclearization, aiming for the end of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term, Seoul officials said on Thursday, prompting thanks from Trump who said they would “get it done together”.

Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet in Pyongyang on Sept. 18-20 for a third summit and discuss “practical measures” toward denuclearization, Moon’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, said a day after meeting Kim.

The summit could provide renewed momentum to talks over denuclearization between North Korea and the United States, after Trump canceled a visit to Pyongyang by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month citing lack of progress.

Kim told South Korean officials his faith in Trump was “unchanged” and that he wanted denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and an end to hostile relations with the United States before Trump’s first term ends in early 2021, Chung said.

But there was no indication that Kim had offered concrete steps toward giving up his nuclear arsenal, something some U.S. officials have said privately they doubt he is willing to do.

“He particularly emphasized that he has never said anything negative about President Trump,” Chung said.

Trump welcomed Kim’s remarks in a trademark Tweet.

“Kim Jong Un of North Korea proclaims ‘unwavering faith in President Trump.’ Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!” Trump wrote.

Trump had previously hailed his landmark June 12 summit with Kim as a success and said the North Korean nuclear threat was over, despite little evidence to back that assertion.

In previous, failed talks, North Korea has said it could consider giving up its nuclear program if the United States provided security guarantees by removing troops from South Korea and withdrawing its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from the South and Japan.

U.S. officials involved in the latest negotiations have said North Korea has refused to even start discussions about defining denuclearization and has insisted the United States must first agree to simultaneous steps to reduce sanctions pressure.

Some analysts suggested Kim was flattering Trump in hopes of dividing the president from advisers who have advocated a tougher U.S. stand.

“Kim just owns Trump. He knows his mark,” Vipin Narang, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who specializes in nuclear issues, said in a message on Twitter.

‘ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF WORK TO DO’

Pompeo, on a trip to New Delhi, said there was still “an enormous amount of work to do” on the denuclearization issue.

He visited Pyongyang in July, after which North Korea accused him of making “unilateral and gangster-like demands for denuclearization”.

Asked about U.S. intelligence that North Korea was still advancing its weapons programs, Pompeo noted Pyongyang had ceased its nuclear tests and test-firing missiles, which he said was a “good thing.”

Chief of the national security office at Seoul's presidential Blue House Chung Eui-yong meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, North Korea. The Presidential Blue House /via REUTERS

“But the work of convincing Chairman Kim to make this strategic shift that we’ve talked about for a brighter future for the people of North Korea continues,” Pompeo said.

The State Department later said Pompeo was sending his newly appointed North Korea envoy, Stephen Biegun, to South Korea, China and Japan from Sept. 10-15.

Signaling that Washington’s concerns extend beyond Pyongyang’s nuclear program, the U.S. government on Thursday charged and sanctioned an alleged North Korean hacker over the 2017 global WannaCry ransomware cyberattack, the 2014 cyber assault on Sony Corp. and other “malign cyber activities.”

Chung said Kim had stressed the need for the United States to reciprocate North Korea’s initial moves, which have included dismantling a nuclear test site and a missile engine facility.

“We support progress in inter-Korean relations and President Moon’s statements that such progress must go hand-in-hand with denuclearization,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council (NSC) said when asked about the meeting

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said Kim told the South’s envoys that his “fixed stand” was to turn the Korean peninsula into “a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons, free from nuclear threat”.

Chung said Kim showed “frustration over the doubt raised by some parts of the international community about his willingness to denuclearize, and asked us to convey his message to the United States”.

“He expressed his strong will to carry out more proactive measures toward denuclearization if action is taken in response to the North’s preemptive steps,” Chung said.

Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, said: “Looks like Kim is trying to wash away worries that talks could stall or fail, knowing well that Washington is losing patience.”

U.S. officials have previously said they have already made conciliatory gestures, such as suspending joint military exercises with South Korea.

During his meeting with Kim, Chung delivered a message from Trump and will relay comments from Kim to U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, Moon’s spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom, told reporters. Chung later spoke to Bolton, the NSC official said.

Trump spoke to Moon on the evening before Chung’s trip and asked Moon to act as “chief negotiator” between Washington and Pyongyang, the spokesman said.

However, a three-way summit between Trump, Kim and Moon - an idea that South Korea has floated - is not expected on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York this month, Chung said, suggesting that Kim is not likely to become the first North Korean leader to attend the gathering.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised the Koreas for their trust-building efforts and expressed hope for further progress toward “complete and verifiable denuclearization,” his spokesman said.

WHAT HAPPENS FIRST?

Kim and Trump held an unprecedented summit in Singapore in June, in which the North Korean leader made a broad, vague commitment to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. But negotiations have stalled, while signs North Korea has maintained work on its weapons have emerged.

Under discussion is whether North Korean denuclearization or declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War should come first.

Slideshow (2 Images)

The war ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, meaning U.S.-led U.N. forces are technically still at war with the North.

“The United States shouldn’t delay any further an end-of-war declaration, which the U.S. president promised at the Singapore summit,” the North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said.

U.S. officials have said such a declaration could weaken North Korea’s incentive for denuclearization, and create uncertainty about the purpose of 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.
Kim gives a timeline for denuclearization, aiming for completion by the end of U.S. President Donald Trump's first term.