U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet by May and Kim has pledged to refrain from further nuclear or missile tests, South Korea's national security chief said on Thursday after briefing White House officials on talks between Seoul and Pyongyang.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was prepared to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the first U.S.-North Korea summit, marking a potentially dramatic breakthrough in nuclear tensions with Pyongyang.

Kim has committed to "denuclearisation" and to suspending nuclear or missile tests, South Korea's National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong told reporters at the White House after briefing Trump on South Korean officials' meeting with Kim on Monday.

"A meeting is being planned," Trump tweeted after speaking to Chung, who announced that Trump expressed a willingness to sit down with Kim in what would be his biggest foreign policy gamble since taking office.

Chung said Trump, in response to Kim's invitation, had agreed to meet by May, and a senior U.S. official later said it could happen "in a matter of a couple of months, with the exact timing and place still to be determined."

Trump has previously said he was willing to meet Kim under the right circumstances but had indicated that the time was not right for such talks. He mocked U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in October for "wasting his time" trying to talk to North Korea.

Earlier Thursday, Tillerson had said on a visit to Africa that although "talks about talks" might be possible with Pyongyang, denuclearisation negotiations were likely a long way off.

"Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearisation with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze," Trump said in a message on Twitter on Thursday night. "Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time."

Trump added: "Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached."

A meeting between Kim and Trump, who have exchanged bellicose insults in the past year that have raised fear of war, would be a major turnaround after a year in which North Korea has carried out a battery of tests aimed at developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.

"Kim pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests," Chung said, apparently referring to a suspension during the duration of any talks.

"He expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible," he said.

Trump's aides have been wary of North Korea's diplomatic overtures because of its history of reneging on international commitments and the failure of efforts on disarmament by the administrations of President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama.

Under Clinton in October 2000, then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright held talks in Pyongyang with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un.

U.S. officials and experts, speaking to Reuters before Thursday's announcement, had cautioned that North Korea could buy time to build up and refine its nuclear arsenal, including a warhead able to survive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, if it manages to drag out any talks with Washington.

Chung and National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon flew to Washington to explain North Korea's stance on possible future talks with Washington and the prospect of Pyongyang suspending nuclear tests if the security of the North's government is assured.

In what would be a key North Korean concession, Chung said Kim "understands that the routine joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and the United States must continue."

Pyongyang had previously demanded that such joint drills be suspended in order for any U.S. talks to go forward.

Trump in the past has derided the North Korean leader as a “maniac,” referred to him as “little rocket man” and threatened in a speech to the United Nations last year to "totally destroy" his country of 26 million people if it attacked the United States or one of its allies.

Kim had responded by calling the U.S. president a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard.”

Trump has also been scathing in his criticism of previous U.S. administrations for not doing more to rein in the North Korean government.

"He believes that he has them on the ropes, or at a disadvantage right now. They only made the gesture because they feel the pressure badly and so this a good time," a second senior administration official said.

But U.S. officials may also be wary since North Korea has yet to weigh in directly on its diplomatic offer and previous overtures from Pyongyang have sometimes carried demands that Washington has found impossible to accept, such as the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he confirmed in telephone talks with Trump that pressure still needed to be applied worldwide on North Korea.

Abe also told reporters he hoped to visit the United States as early as next month to meet Trump to discuss North Korea, among other issues.

"We welcome the change in North Korea's stance", Abe said. "Japan and the United States will not waver in its firm stance that they will continue to put maximum pressure until North Korea takes concrete action towards the complete, verifiable and irreversible end to nuclear missile development."

A senior administration official said Trump agreed to meet Kim because Kim is the "one person who is able to make decisions under their authoritarian, uniquely authoritarian, or totalitarian system," a senior administration official said.

Daniel Russel, until last April the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, the most senior U.S. diplomatic position for Asia, noted there had still been no public comment from North Korea about the content of Monday’s meeting with the South Korean delegation.

"Let’s hear from the North Koreans themselves what they are proposing and what they are willing to do. There is plenty of reason to be cautious, given their track record," Russel said. "Second, let’s read the fine print. The North has made peace overtures in the past that did not hold up under scrutiny."

Tensions over North Korea rose to their highest in years in 2017, and the Trump administration has warned that all options are on the table, including military ones, in dealing with Pyongyang, which has pursued its weapons programs in defiance of ever tougher U.N. sanctions.

Signs of a thaw emerged this year, with North and South Korea resuming talks and North Korea attending the Winter Olympics. During the Pyongyang talks this week, the two Koreas agreed to hold their first summit since 2007 in late April.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said sanctions should not be eased for the sake of talks and that nothing less than denuclearisation of North Korea should be the final goal for talks.

China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, called on the United States and North Korea to hold talks as soon as possible, warning at a news briefing in Beijing on Thursday that things "will not be smooth sailing".</s>North and South Korea marched together at the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, but a dispute over the unified flag drove them apart at the opening ceremony for the Paralympics on Friday.

The two nations decided to forgo the symbol of unity because of a tiny island chain that would have amounted to little more than a dot on the flag.

The show of division came on the same day that President Donald Trump announced that he agreed to meet face-to-face with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The two leaders have shared a strained relationship prior to the agreement, involving threats over nuclear capabilities and insults.

North Korea asked that the Dokdo Islands, which Japan now claims and calls Takeshima, be included on the flag, according to BBC. The unified flag, which was seen at the Winter Olympics, showed the Korean peninsula in blue against a white background. South Korea said putting the islands on the flag would violate the International Paralympics Committee’s recommendation not to politicize sports events.

North Korean officials said they do “not accept the fact that Dokdo cannot be marked due to political issues held in Korea,” Reuters reported.

The two Korean nations agreed to “respect each other’s stance and march separately” following the flag disagreement, BBC reported.

Despite the rift, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that the North Koreans were cheered when they entered the arena at the Paralympics opening ceremony on Friday.</s>A carnival float depicting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump at the traditional "Rosenmontag" Rose Monday carnival parade in Mainz, Germany, February 12, 2018. Source: Reuters/Ralph Orlowski

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after an invitation from Kim was delivered to the White House by a South Korean envoy on Friday. The meeting will be the first time in a sitting US president has met with his North Korean counterpart.

Trump said on Twitter that there must be no missile testing by Pyongyang during the time leading to and during the talks that have been scheduled for May.

“Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached,” the president said.



 SEE ALSO: Kim Jong Un suggests Korean summit to pursue reunification



A senior White House official made clear that the US will settle for nothing less than the permanent denuclearization of North Korea, according to Reuters.

At an announcement at the White House on Friday, South Korea’s National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong told reporters Kim has committed to “denuclearization” and to suspending nuclear or missile tests.

The 10-man South Korean delegation met with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang on Monday. Talks are a sign of thawing relationship between the Korea’s after an olive branch was offered at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

A meeting between Kim and Trump, who have exchanged bellicose insults in the past year that have raised fear of war, would be a major turnaround after a year in which North Korea has carried out a battery of tests aimed at developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.

“I told him (Trump) that in our meeting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that he’s committed to denuclearization,” Chung said. “Kim pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests.”

SEE ALSO: How informal diplomacy might just get the Koreas to the negotiating table



“He expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible,” he said. “President Trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet Kim Jong Un by May to achieve denuclearization.”

Earlier Thursday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that though “talks about talks” might be possible with Pyongyang, denuclearization negotiations were likely a long way off.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said in response to the announcement in Washington that North Korea must commit to abandoning nuclear development completely in order for meaningful talks to take place with Pyongyang.</s>"I reiterate our desire for more African nations to apply concrete diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea," Tillerson said. "African nations can contribute to this goal, and we need, country by country, for nations to take action to support this international effort towards a denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

As part of the maximum pressure campaign, the UN Security Council has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The United States has also called on all countries to cut trade and military ties with North Korea.

READ MORE: N Korea Develops Its Weapons Program, 'While We're Not Talking' — Expert

US media has reported that National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster will meet with his South Korean counterparts in Washington, DC on Thursday to discuss recent talks between the North and South.

South Korean media reports said the envoys would hand over a private message to the United States from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

READ MORE: Will North Korea Agree to Drop Its Nuclear Program? Expert Explains

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have escalated drastically last year due to the North's nuclear activity, which led to the UN Security Council imposing its toughest ever sanctions on the country.

In November 2017, North Korea tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile, which according to Pyongyang, would have been capable of hitting any part of the US mainland.

READ MORE: Professor: 'Denuclearization of Korea Peninsula is Possible Under NK Conditions'</s>President Donald Trump's planned meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was met with cheers from many Republican lawmakers -- but some skepticism from others.

South Korea's national security director Chung Eui-yong said the two world leaders agreed to meet by May. Trump tweeted: “Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned!”



U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., praised the president’s efforts to denuclearize North Korea, saying that it “gives us the best hope” to “peacefully” resolve escalating tensions.

While Graham acknowledged North Korea’s past as being “all talk and no action,” he warned Kim directly that “the worst possible thing you can do is meet with President Trump in person and try to play him.”

He added, “If you do that, it will be the end of you – and your regime.”

U.S. Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also said the invitation showed that sanctions on North Korea were “starting to work.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also praised the sanctions implemented by Congress, saying that they “are having a real effect.”

However, some members of the committee remained skeptical.

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., said the “price of admission” for Trump and Kim meeting must be “complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., also said that the invitation was the “beginning of a long diplomatic process” and that Trump needed to avoid “unscripted” remarks that could derail it.

Evan S. Medeiros, a former adviser in the Obama administration, warned that Kim “played” South Korean President Moon Jae-in and “is now playing Trump.”

Medeiros added, “Kim will never give up his nukes.”

The White House confirmed the Trump accepted the invitation but did not reveal and details surrounding when or where a meeting might happen.

Fox News’ Mike Emanuel, Jason Donner and the Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>Kim Jong-un has invited Donald Trump to meet with him to discuss North Korean commitment to stop nuclear and missile testing, US officials said on Thursday.

The US President and North Korean leader will meet by May.

Kim has committed to "denuclearisation" and to suspending nuclear or missile tests, South Korea's national security chief Chung Eui-yong said on Thursday after briefing White House officials on talks between Seoul and Pyongyang.

"I told him (Trump) that in our meeting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that he's committed to denuclearisation," Chung said.

"Kim pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests."

Chung went on: "He expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible.

"President Trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet Kim Jong Un by May to achieve denuclearisation."

A meeting between Kim and Trump, who have traded insults in the past year that have raised fear of war, would mark a dramatic breakthrough in efforts to resolve the tense standoff over North Korea's effort to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.

Tensions over North Korea rose to their highest in years in 2017, and the Trump administration had previously warned that all options were on the table, including military ones, in dealing with Pyongyang, which pursued its weapons programmes in defiance of ever tougher UN sanctions.

Signs of a thaw emerged this year, with North and South Korea resuming talks and North Korea attending the Winter Olympics.

During the Pyongyang talks this week, the two Koreas agreed to hold their first summit since 2007 in late April.</s>The president of the United States on Thursday agreed to meet with North Korea's leader, saying that he would do so by May, according to South Korean officials in Washington.

To start the talks with Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un offered the suspension of his nuclear and ballistic missile programs, South Korean representatives said in Washington.

The head of South Korea's National Security Office, Chung Eui-yong, who led Seoul's delegation to Washington, delivered to Trump a letter which Kim had handed to him on Monday during their meeting in Pyongyang.

"President Trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet Kim Jong-un by May to achieve permanent denuclearization," Chung Eui-yong told reporters.

"Along with President Trump," the South Korean envoy added, "we are optimistic about continuing a diplomatic process to prove the possibility of a peaceful resolution."

Chung also said that South Korea, the US and the rest of the allies will maintain diplomatic and economic "pressure" until North Korea "matches its words with concrete actions."

Before coming to Washington on Thursday, Chung Eui-yong had been in Pyongyang on Monday to meet with Kim, who "expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible."

The North Korean leader also "pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests," and said that he "is committed to denuclearization."

Kim Jong-un and Chung Eui-yong also agreed the holding of a meeting between the North Korean leader and the South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the border between the two Koreas in April. EFE</s>"Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze," Trump said in a tweet. "Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time."

It marks a dramatic shift in Trump's stance toward North Korea. He has threatened the pariah nation with "fire and fury" if its threats against the U.S. and its allies continued. He has derided Kim by referring to him as "Little Rocket Man." Kim has pilloried Trump as "senile" and a "dotard."

After Kim repeated threats against the U.S. in a New Year's address and mentioned the "nuclear button" on his office desk, Trump responded by tweeting that he has a nuclear button, too, "but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"

North Korea appeared to confirm the summit plans. A senior North Korean diplomat at the United Nations in New York, Pak Song Il, told The Washington Post in an email that the invitation was the result of Kim's "broad minded and resolute decision" to contribute to the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula.

By the "great courageous decision of our Supreme Leader, we can take the new aspect to secure the peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the East Asia region," Pak wrote.

On Tuesday after leaving Pyongyang, Chung had publicized that North Korea was offering talks with the United States on denuclearization and normalizing ties. But the proposal for a summit still came as a surprise, and will raise questions about whether the two sides are ready for such a high-level meeting.

Just a few hours earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is travelling in Africa, had said the adversaries were still a long way from holding negotiations.

Chung, who credited Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign for the diplomatic opening on the nuclear issue, said Kim understands that routine U.S.-South Korea military drills "must continue."

The drills were suspended during the Winter Olympics recently hosted by South Korea, which provided impetus for the inter-Korea rapprochement. The drills are expected to resume next month and had widely been seen as an obstacle to talks. North Korea has long protested the military manoeuvrs south of the divided Korean Peninsula as a rehearsal for invading the North.

When the South Korean delegation briefed Trump in the Oval Office, he was joined by a number of top advisers, including Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, chief of staff John Kelly and the director of national intelligence, among others, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters after the announcement. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the sensitive diplomatic issue by name and spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was no letter from Kim to Trump, just an oral briefing from the South Korean officials.

The planned summit was welcomed by arms control advocates, but got varying responses from Republican lawmakers.

House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce said the invitation was a sign that sanction pressure was working but he was skeptical of North Korea's motives. Sen. Lindsey Graham warned Kim that "the worst possible thing you can do is meet with President Trump in person and try to play him. If you do that, it will be the end of you — and your regime."

Darryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said it was too much to expect a single Trump-Kim summit could immediately resolve the nuclear issue that has bedeviled U.S. administrations since the early 1990s, when the North first began producing fissile material for bombs.

"But if the U.S. works closely and intensively with our South Korean allies in its approach to North Korea, a summit offers the potential for starting a serious process that could move us decisively away from the current crisis," Kimball said.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Zeke Miller, Catherine Lucey, Ken Thomas, Darlene Superville and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

By Matthew Pennington, The Associated Press</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A South Korean delegation on Thursday hand-delivered a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the White House for U.S. President Donald Trump, CNN reported, citing an unnamed foreign diplomatic source.

Reuters could not independently confirm the report.

South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, will make an announcement on North Korea in the White House briefing room at 7 p.m. EST on Thursday (0000 GMT), White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.</s>(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has accepted an offer of a summit from the North Korean leader and will meet with Kim Jong Un by May, a top South Korean official said Thursday, in a remarkable turnaround in relations between two historic adversaries.

The South Korean national security director, Chung Eui-yong, told reporters of the planned meeting outside the White House, after briefing Trump and other top U.S. officials about a rare meeting with Kim in the North Korean capital on Monday.

No serving American president has ever met with a North Korean leader. The U.S. and North Korea do not even have formal diplomatic relations. The two nations remain in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty.

Seoul had already publicized that North Korea had offered talks with the United States on denuclearization and normalizing ties, providing a diplomatic opening after a year of escalating tensions over the North’s nuclear and missile tests. The rival Koreas also agreed to hold a leadership summit in late April.

“He (Kim) expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible,” Chung said. “President Trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet Kim Jong Un by May to achieve permanent denuclearization.”

Chung did not say where Trump would meet with Kim. The White House said Trump’s meeting with Kim would take place “at a place and time to be determined.”

Trump took office vowing to stop North Korea from attaining a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the U.S. mainland. He’s oscillated between threats and insults directed at Kim, and more conciliatory rhetoric. His more bellicose talk, and Kim’s nuclear and missile tests, have fueled fears of war.

Trump, who has ramped up economic sanctions on North Korea to force it to negotiate on giving up its nukes, has threatened the pariah nation with “fire and fury” if its threats against the U.S. and its allies continued. He has derided Kim by referring to him as “Little Rocket Man.”

After Kim repeated threats against the U.S. in a New Year’s address and mentioned the “nuclear button” on his office desk, Trump responded by tweeting that he has a nuclear button, too, “but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”
U.S. President Donald Trump accepts an invitation from North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un to discuss North Korea's denuclearization sometime by May.