North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hugs South Korean President Moon Jae-in after signing on a joint statement at the border village of Panmunjom. Picture: Korea Summit Press Pool/AP Trump likes DMZ for Kim summit venue

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hugs South Korean President Moon Jae-in after signing on a joint statement at the border village of Panmunjom. Picture: Korea Summit Press Pool/AP Trump likes DMZ for Kim summit venue

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un has gone from ridiculed international pariah to smiling diplomat in the space of just months.

However analysts warn the West is being played and United States President Donald Trump is being manipulated into giving Kim exactly what he wants.

Just days after the historic inter-Korean summit, the first in more than a decade, questions remain around the most contentious agenda item of them all: denuclearisation.

It also puts the ball squarely in the court of Mr Trump, whose much-anticipated summit with Kim is just weeks away.

While calls grow for Mr Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing Kim to the negotiating table, analysts suggest Kim is playing for time and appealing to the US President's vanity.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who made negotiating with the North a key goal, has called the for the US President to be awarded the prestigious prize.

"President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. What we need is only peace," Mr Moon told a meeting of senior secretaries.

The comments came as the South Korean leader deflected a question about whether he might win the award as one of his predecessors, Kim Dae-jung, did in 2000 after the first ever inter-Korean summit with then-leader Kim Jong-il.

The Koreas pledged to seek a formal end this year to the Korean War - a conflict that was halted in 1953 by an armistice and not a peace treaty, meaning the two sides are technically still at war. They also committed to eradicating nuclear weapons from the peninsula.

During a campaign-style rally in Michigan on Saturday, Mr Trump told supporters his critics used to say he would drag the world into nuclear war.

The US leader has been eager to play up his role in achieving a breakthrough with Pyongyang through his "maximum pressure" campaign involving tough rhetoric, stronger sanctions and diplomatic efforts to further isolate the regime.

Mr Trump's tone marks a huge change with the President only months ago calling his North Korean counterpart "Little Rocket Man".

Kim last year sent tensions soaring with a series of intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear tests.

During his maiden address to the United Nations in September, Mr Trump lashed out at Kim mocking him and escalating the war of words between the two.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho in turn branded Mr Trump "a mentally deranged person full of megalomania" and warned a strike against the US mainland was "inevitable".

Malcolm Davis, senior analyst in defence strategy and capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told news.com.au Kim is both opportunistic and manipulative by making easy concessions designed to entice Mr Trump to rush into a summit.

"He recognises he can play for time because his nuclear and missile technologies are sufficiently advanced that he can afford to offer a testing freeze for both," Dr Davis said.

"Plus the Punggye-ri (nuclear test) site suffered severe damage in the last test - whether other tunnels are operational is uncertain, but an offer to freeze testing can be reversed quickly if in fact they are operational."

While the inter-Korean summit offered many promises but little substance, Dr Davis said its apparent success made it harder for Mr Trump to say no to meeting Kim, adding that Mr Moon appears ready to rush towards a deal.

"They are pushing for peace and then denuclearisation," he said.

"So peace might be a peace treaty being signed, that would include lifting of sanctions, economic assistance to the North, security guarantees, and ultimately reduction or elimination of US forces and the lifting of the US nuclear umbrella to Korea. Then the North will denuclearise. Maybe."

While Mr Moon and Mr Trump may like the sound of a Nobel Peace Prize, the reality was "cooler heads will prevail" from within the US administration who will want concrete and meaningful steps towards real denuclearisation before further concessions are made.

"The US will insist on CVID - complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearisation - according to (National Security Adviser John) Bolton and the key challenge will be getting Trump to insist on that," Dr Davis said.

He said he remained sceptical that this diplomatic process is really going to lead to a peaceful outcome.

John Blaxland, Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies and director of ANU's Southeast Asia Institute, said it was clear Kim was playing a game by "appealing to Trump's extraordinary vanity".

He also said it is Kim who is largely driving the agenda.

"Most pundits agree that Kim's determination to refine his nuclear weapons and ICBM capabilities has raised the stakes to a level not witnessed at times of earlier moments of hope, when North Korea joined with others to talk about the prospects of peace and reconciliation," Prof Blaxland said.

"It is these raised stakes that have so captivated Trump's attention, driving him obsessively to focus on brinkmanship on the Korean Peninsula."

Prof Blaxland said Mr Trump's drive and determination is undoubtedly a factor in bringing the crisis to the cusp of a groundbreaking resolution of what has seemed an interminable conflict.

"He knows Kim plays with a weak hand. Other than in terms of its nuclear weapons and massed Army, North Korea is a basket case," he said.

"Kim also knows that Trump's threats of 'fire and fury' are more plausible under his administration than has been the case for generations. So both Trump and Kim seem to be capitalising on the extraordinary confluence of events."

However Prof Blaxland said it is Kim in the driving seat.

"Kim has driven the agenda, accelerating the weapons development programs, brushing off sanctions, stealing the limelight at the Winter Olympics, striking a yet to be fully disclosed bargain with China's President Xi Jinping and positioning himself as the linchpin and focal point for global aspirations with his summitry," he said.

"Mindful of the confluence of factors, big egos, grand ambitions and high stakes, South Korea's President has joined in the euphoria to effusively talk about President Trump meriting being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This is undoubtedly a move that will endear Moon to Trump and probably goes some way to explain why Moon made the statement.

"Moon has to carefully manage what Trump might do next, mindful of his earlier wariness about American commitments abroad."

Prof Blaxland said everyone needed to keep their feet firmly on the ground given the stakes are high and pointed out the best we could hope for is a de-escalation, a scaling back of tensions and a measured and considered path to incremental reconciliation.

New York-based Park Strategies senior vice president Sean King, an expert on Asian politics, stopped short of calling Kim clever but said he was cunning and evil.

While Mr Moon was playing to Mr Trump's ego, he didn't think Kim was doing that just yet and questioned Kim's intentions.

"Nobody really knows why Kim's reaching out now and whoever actually does know isn't talking," Mr King said.

"The rest of us, myself included, are all just guessing and theorising the best we can."

Mr King suggested four key scenarios as to why Kim was reaching out to the West including that he feels emboldened enough, now that he has ICBMs, to reach out and is in desperate need of sanctions being lifted.

He said Kim could be wanting to make some kind of symbolic splash given it was his country's 70th anniversary this year and went onto to suggest a fourth reason.

"He senses a rare opportunity, as he's been dealt the unique combination of a liberal South Korean president and a US president who openly questions America's alliances," he said.

"Kim could think now's his chance to split the US and South Korean alliance once for all."</s>Like a showman, Trump suggests DMZ for 'big event' with Kim

WASHINGTON (AP) — Like a consummate showman, President Donald Trump began rolling the drum Monday for his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, suggesting the "big event" take place in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Koreas. That's where Kim just met his South Korean counterpart.

But Trump said that the Southeast Asian city state of Singapore was also in the running to host what few would have predicted when nuclear tensions were soaring last year — the first face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the United States and North Korea.

While policy experts, and even his own national security adviser, voice skepticism that North Korea is sincere about giving up its nuclear efforts, Trump sounds like he's gearing up for a date with history, and clearly wants the backdrop to be just right.

First by Twitter, and then at a press conference in the White House Rose Garden, Trump said he likes the idea of going to the southern side of the demarcation line that separates the Koreas, where South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Kim on Friday.

"There's something that I like about it because you are there, you are actually there," Trump said. "If things work out there's a great celebration to be had on the site, not in a third-party country."

There's been much speculation about where Trump and Kim might meet. Countries in Europe and Southeast Asia, in Mongolia and even a ship in international waters have all been suggested as possible venues. Monday was the first time that Trump had publicly named potential locations.

His planned meeting with Kim will be the crucial follow-up to the summit between Kim and Moon on Friday where they pledged to seek a formal end this year to the Korean War — a conflict that was halted in 1953 by an armistice and not a peace treaty, leaving the two sides technically at war. They also committed to ridding the peninsula of nuclear weapons.

Former reality television star Trump now has to help turn the Korean leaders' bold but vague vision for peace into reality. Undaunted, he gave the impression Monday that governments were vying to host his face-to-face with Kim and share in the attention it would bring.

"Everybody wants us. It has the chance to be a big event," the president said on a bright spring day in Washington, alongside Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, whom he'd just met at the White House. "The United States has never been closer to potentially have something happen with respect to the Korean Peninsula that can get rid of the nuclear weapons, can create so many good things, so many positive things, and peace and security for the world."

It wasn't clear whether his enthusiasm was stirred by the South Korean president's suggestion Monday that Trump could take the Nobel Peace Prize if the two Koreas win peace. Moon's remark came when he deflected a question about whether he might win the award as one of his predecessors, Kim Dae-jung, did in 2000 after the first ever inter-Korean summit.

The United States has reached aid-for-disarmament deals with North Korea before, but they've ultimately failed. The most enduring effort negotiated by the Bill Clinton administration in 1994 halted the North's production of plutonium for nearly a decade. But it collapsed over suspicions that North Korea had a secret program to enrich uranium, giving it an alternative route to make fissile material for bombs.

Trump's recently installed national security adviser, John Bolton, who has in the past advocated military action against North Korea, reacted coolly Sunday to its reported willingness to give up nuclear programs if the United States commits to a formal end to the war and a pledges not to attack.

"We've heard this before," Bolton told CBS' "Face the Nation," adding that the U.S. wanted to see concrete action "not just rhetoric."

This year, Kim has already suspended his nuclear and missile tests. According to South Korean officials, he told Moon that he's going to shut down his country's only known nuclear testing site and allow experts and journalists to observe.

Trump cited that prospect with approval on Monday, saying Kim is "talking about no research, no launches of ballistic missiles, no nuclear testing." But as usual, the president left open the possibility of pulling the plug on talks, saying: "If it's not a success, I will respectfully leave."

Associated Press writer Catherine Lucey contributed to this report.</s>If anyone were to win the Nobel Peace Prize for the current effort to solve the North Korean nuclear problem, it should be President Trump. That’s what South Korea’s president said Monday when it was suggested that he himself should be in line for the award.

President Moon Jae-in has gone out of his way to flatter Trump and credit him for creating the environment that has brought about the remarkable diplomatic rapprochement now unfolding.

But even by Moon’s standards, the latest remarks were really something.

They came after Lee Hee-ho, the widow of late South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, sent Moon a message congratulating him for Friday’s summit with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un.

The day-long summit was filled with warm encounters and ended with a joint declaration from the two sides pledging to bring about a formal end to the Korean War and work toward the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula.

[Trump hails ‘historic’ Korea meeting but leaves questions about next step ]

Moon deserves the Nobel Prize for Peace for his efforts, Lee wrote in her note.

She would know a thing or two about this. Her husband organized the first inter-Korean summit, in 2000, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for it. Kim Dae-jung’s achievement was rather marred, however, when it emerged that he had arranged for the North Korean leader at the time, Kim Jong Il, to receive $500 million for participating.

Lee traveled to Pyongyang in 2011 for Kim Jong Il’s funeral and met his son Kim Jong Un — briefly — at that time.

Moon told his aides about her note during a meeting Monday. Then he added: “President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. The only thing we need is peace.”

The remark was reported by local media and confirmed by South Korea’s presidential Blue House.



A banner showing President Trump, right, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, center, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is displayed in Seoul on April 27 to support the summit between two Koreas. (Ahn Young-Joon/AP)

Moon’s approval ratings — already defying the South Korean tendency to fall off a cliff the moment a president is elected — have risen further after the summit.

A Realmeter poll conducted over the weekend found that 70 percent of those surveyed approved of the way the president was managing state affairs. Meanwhile, a poll from lesser-known Hangil Research put Moon’s support at an astounding 86 percent. More than 88 percent of the respondents to that survey approved of the joint statement that resulted from Friday’s summit.

At a rally in Michigan on Saturday, Trump demurred when he started talking about North Korea and members of the audience began chanting “Nobel! Nobel!”

“That’s very nice, thank you,” Trump said. “I just want to get the job done.”

But he also again took the credit for bringing North Korea to the table with his “maximum pressure” policy.

One of the “fake news” outlets had asked what Trump had to do with the North Korean talks, the president told the crowd. “I’ll tell you what. Like, how about, everything,” he said.

As Moon tries to get Trump to buy into diplomatic efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue — and dismiss suggestions that military action might be the answer — he has sought to pass all the credit to Trump.

In January, after Kim Jong Un said he was willing to talk to South Korea, Trump tweeted that this was because he, the American president, had been “firm, strong and willing to commit our total ‘might’ against the North.”

[Talk of peace with North Korea has the South wondering: Will this time be different? ]

Asked a few days later whether this was correct, Moon said it was.

“I give President Trump huge credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks, and I’d like to thank him for that,” Moon said at a New Year’s news conference in Seoul.



It turned out that Trump had asked Moon to credit him publicly for creating the environment for the talks, people familiar with the conversation told The Washington Post at the time.

It’s an approach that has been shared across East Asia.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has flattered Trump at golf games and over burgers, while Chinese President Xi Jinping gave him a welcome in Beijing that was fit for a king.

But Moon particularly needs Trump to feel invested in the nascent efforts to engage the North Korean leader.

Moon hosted Kim on the southern side of the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas on Friday for a summit designed to lay the groundwork for a meeting between Trump and Kim.

The timing and location have not been set, but the meeting is expected to take place in late May or early June.

Moon is set to travel to Washington in mid-May, immediately after a trilateral meeting with Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on May 9, to brief Trump on his own meeting with Kim.

Read more:

Did you hear the one about the North Korean leader, the $100 bill and the trump card?

North Korea promises to dismantle its nuclear test site in public view, South says

Trump makes himself the axis on which events in Asia and Europe spin

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news</s>The Latest: S. Korea to remove loudspeakers at border

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The Latest on developments in relations between North and South Korea (all times local):

South Korea's president is saying that U.S. President Donald Trump "can take the Nobel prize" as long as the Koreas receive peace in return.

Moon Jae-in made the comment Monday in response to a suggestion by the widow of late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 after a summit with then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

The widow said Moon, who met with current North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week, should also receive the prize. In the recent summit, Moon and Kim Jong Un walked together across the tense border and agreed to a raft of initiatives meant to ease animosity.

Moon responded that "President Trump can take the Nobel prize. The only thing we need is peace."

South Korea says it will remove propaganda-broadcasting loudspeakers from the border with North Korea.

The announcement came three days after the leaders of the two Koreas agreed to work together to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and end hostile acts against each other along their border during their rare summit talks.

Seoul's Defense Ministry said Monday it will pull back dozens of its frontline loudspeakers on Tuesday.

It says Seoul expects Pyongyang to do the same.

South Korea had turned off its loudspeakers ahead of Friday's summit talks, and North Korea responded by halting its own broadcasts.

Seoul had blasted propaganda messages and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers since the North's fourth nuclear test in early 2016. The North quickly matched the South's action with its own border broadcasts.</s>SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in said President Donald Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the standoff with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, a South Korean official said Monday.

“President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. What we need is only peace,” Moon told a meeting of senior secretaries, according to a presidential Blue House official who briefed media.

Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday pledged to end hostilities between the two countries and work towards the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula in the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade.

Trump is preparing for his own summit with Kim, which he said would take place in the next three to four weeks.

That upcoming meeting was the main subject of a private walk and chat that Kim and Moon had during their meeting at the border, the official said.</s>The Latest: Trump says he favors border for NKorea meeting

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on U.S. policy on North Korea (all times local):

President Donald Trump says he may favor the heavily fortified border between North and South Korea for his proposed summit with the North's dictator Kim Jong Un.

Trump said Monday that "there's something that I like" about meeting at the border known as the Demilitarized Zone "because you're there."

The president also said that if the talks were successful, the "celebration" at the border would be memorable.

United States and North Korean officials are still negotiating the timing and location of the possible summit.

Trump said a number of other countries were also being considered, including Singapore.

Kim met with this South Korean counterpart, President Moon Jae-in, at the DMZ for talks last week. Trump tried to visit the DMZ while in Asia in November but was thwarted by fog.

President Donald Trump is questioning whether a potential meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could be held in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Koreas.

Trump says on Twitter Monday: "Numerous countries are being considered for the MEETING, but would Peace House/Freedom House, on the Border of North & South Korea, be a more Representative, Important and Lasting site than a third party country? Just asking!"

Trump said over the weekend that the time and location of the meeting with Kim are being set. It is tentatively scheduled for May or early June.

Kim and South Korea President Moon Jae-in have pledged to seek a formal end to the Korean War by year's end and to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons.</s>South Korea is apparently dismantling the loudspeakers at the border it uses to broadcast into North Korea.

South Korea has been blasting everything from Korean pop music to news reports into North Korea since the loudspeakers were set up in 1960s, according to the BBC.

North Korea has, in turn, blared propaganda over the border.

The loudspeakers have long been considered a kind of psychological warfare.

South Korea, which had already turned off the loudspeakers prior to last Friday’s summit, reportedly began taking apart the devices Tuesday.

North Korea is apparently doing the same on its side of the border.

North Korea, a country that maintains tight control over the information its people receive, is not a fan of the loudspeakers, according to former American intelligence officials.

“We don’t capitalize on our great weapon, which is information. And that’s something they worry about a lot and their reaction to the loudspeakers being activated along the DMZ or the dropping of leaflets by NGOs over North Korea,” former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper explained at a talk toward the end of 2016. “They go to nuts when that happens. So that is a great vulnerability I don’t think we’ve exploited.”

Seoul has apparently requested that nongovernmental organizations stop sending balloons filled with leaflets into North Korea.

After North Korea opted for diplomacy at the start of the year, the two Koreas reportedly turned down the loudspeakers.

North Korea, in particular, changed the music played, switching from propaganda and military marches to choral and folk music.

RELATED: Kim Jong Un Agrees to Location for Meeting with President Trump

The latest move follows a landmark inter-Korean summit during which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met South Korean President Moon Jae-in for the first time.

The two agreed to pursue lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.

A version of this article previously appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.

What do you think? Scroll down to comment below.</s>
• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly agreed to meet President Donald Trump for a historic meeting in the Korean demilitarized zone, the most heavily armed border in the world.
• Trump appeared on Monday to nod toward meeting Kim at the DMZ, rather than a neutral country, which could benefit the North Korean leader.
• Last year, Trump visited South Korea but skipped a trip to the DMZ after trading mutual threats of nuclear annihilation with Kim.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly agreed to meet President Donald Trump for their historic meeting in the Korean demilitarized zone, the most heavily armed border in the world.

Trump on Monday appeared to nod toward the DMZ as the ideal location for the meeting. On Tuesday, CNN's North Korea correspondent, Will Ripley, cited sources as saying Kim has agreed to the location.

By meeting Kim in Korea, Trump has potentially headed off some potentially embarrassing logistical difficulties for the North Korean leader, who may not have a plane fit to cross the Pacific.

Trump will reportedly meet Kim in the same spot Kim met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday, when Kim made history by being the first North Korean leader to enter the South.

CNN's sources said there's a possibility Kim will invite Trump to enter North Korea, and that parts of the summit may take place in the country where no sitting US president has set foot.

A spokesperson for Moon told CNN they "think Panmunjom is quite meaningful as a place to erode the divide and establish a new milestone for peace."

"Wouldn't Panmunjom (the name of the border village where Moon and Kim met) be the most symbolic place?" the spokesperson added.

In addition to logistical and symbolic appropriateness, the DMZ has broadcasting infrastructure in place and proved capable of capturing the historic moment of Kim and Moon's meeting on Friday.

While Trump seemingly dismissed more neutral locations like Singapore, Switzerland, or Mongolia, to meet with Kim, his nod to the DMZ on Monday seemed to indicate his preference for the spot based on its history.

In 2017, Trump was criticized for visiting Asia and South Korea while skipping a trip to the DMZ. At that time, Trump and Kim had engaged in mutual threats of nuclear annihilation.

But this year, Trump's proposed DMZ meeting with Kim will be the second time a Trump administration official has met the leader on peaceful terms, following Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's surprise visit to North Korea in April.</s>SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of - South Korean President Moon Jae-in has shaken off a suggestion that he receive the Nobel Peace Prize, saying that U.S. President Donald Trump “can take the Nobel prize” as long as the Koreas receive peace in return.

Moon made the comment Monday in response to a suggestion that he receive the award by the widow of late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 after a summit with then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Moon held a summit with current leader Kim Jong Un last week in which Moon and Kim, the son of Kim Jong Il, walked together across the tense border and agreed to a raft of initiatives meant to ease animosity. Moon responded to the suggestion of Nobel glory by saying, “President Trump can take the Nobel prize. The only thing we need is peace,” according to the South's presidential office.

South Korea also said Monday that it will remove propaganda-broadcasting loudspeakers from the border with North Korea this week as the rivals move to follow through with their leaders' summit declaration that produced reconciliation steps without a breakthrough in the nuclear standoff.

During their historic meeting Friday at a Korean border village, Kim and Moon agreed to end hostile acts against each other along their tense border, establish a liaison office and resume reunions of separated families. They also agreed to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, but failed to produce specific time frames and disarmament steps.

Seoul's Defence Ministry said it would pull back dozens of its front-line loudspeakers on Tuesday before media cameras. Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyunsoo said Seoul expected North Korea to do the same.

South Korea had already turned off its loudspeakers ahead of Friday's summit talks, and North Korea responded by halting its own broadcasts.

The two Koreas had been engaged in Cold War-era psychological warfare since the North's fourth nuclear test in early 2016. Seoul began blaring anti-North Korean broadcasts and K-Pop songs via border loudspeakers, and North Korea quickly matched the action with its own border broadcasts and launches of balloons carrying anti-South leaflets.

Seoul's announcement came a day after it said Kim told Moon during the summit that he would shut down his country's only known nuclear testing site and allow outside experts and journalists to watch the process.

South Korean officials also cited Kim as saying he would be willing to give up his nuclear programs if the United States commits to a formal end to the Korean War and a pledge not to attack the North. Kim had already suspended his nuclear and missile tests while offering to put his nuclear weapons up for negotiations.

The closing of the Punggy-ri test site, where all six of North Korea's atomic bomb tests occurred, could be an eye-catching disarmament step by North Korea. But there is still deep skepticism over whether Kim is truly willing to negotiate away the nuclear weapons that his country has built after decades of struggle.

According to a summit accord, Kim and Moon agreed to achieve “a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization,” rather than clearly stating “a nuclear-free North Korea.” North Korea has long said the term “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” must include the United States pulling its 28,500 troops out of South Korea and removing its so-called “nuclear umbrella” security commitment to South Korea and Japan.

Kim could offer more disarmament concessions during his meeting with Trump, expected in May or June, but it's unclear what specific steps he would take. Some experts say Kim may announce scraping North Korea's long-range missile program, which has posed a direct threat to the United States.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton reacted coolly to word that Kim would abandon his weapons if the United States pledged not to invade.

Asked on CBS's “Face the Nation” whether the U.S. would make such a promise, Bolton said: “Well, we've heard this before. This is - the North Korean propaganda playbook is an infinitely rich resource. What we want to see from them is evidence that it's real and not just rhetoric.”

Kim's meeting with Moon was his second summit with a foreign leader since he took office in late 2011. In March, he travelled to Beijing and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. While meeting with Xi, Kim suggested he prefers a step-by-step disarmament process in line with corresponding outside rewards, according to Chinese state media. U.S. officials want the North to take complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament measures.

China said Monday that its foreign minister, Wang Yi, will visit Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, on Wednesday and Thursday.

China is North Korea's only major economic partner, but trade has declined by about 90 per cent following Beijing's implementation of economic sanctions imposed over the North's nuclear and missile tests. Some analysts say Kim's recent charm offensive was aimed at weakening the sanctions.

Also on Monday, the North's parliament adopted a decree to sync its time zone with South Korea's this Saturday. North Korea's official news agency said the move was made at the proposal of Kim, who found it was “a painful wrench to see two clocks indicating Pyongyang and Seoul times hanging on a wall of the summit venue.”

Moon's office said Sunday that Kim made similar remarks to Moon during the summit.

The North in 2015 had set its clocks 30 minutes behind South Korea and Japan, saying the measure was aimed at rooting out the legacy of Tokyo's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.</s>SEOUL – South Korean President Moon Jae-in said U.S. President Donald Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the standoff with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, a South Korean official said on Monday.

“President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. What we need is only peace,” Moon told a meeting of senior secretaries, according to a presidential Blue House official who briefed media.

Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday pledged to end hostilities between the two countries and work towards the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula in the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade.

READ MORE: Trump could get Nobel Peace Prize nod for progress on North Korea denuclearization

Trump is preparing for his own summit with Kim, which he said would take place in the next three to four weeks.

That upcoming meeting was the main subject of a private walk and chat that Kim and Moon had during their meeting at the border, the official said.

In January, Moon said Trump “deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks. It could be a resulting work of the U.S.-led sanctions and pressure.”

Moon’s Nobel Prize comment came in response to a congratulatory message from Lee Hee-ho, the widow of late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, in which she said Moon deserved to win the prize in recognition of his efforts, the Blue House official said.

READ MORE: Kim Jong Un says North Korea will give up nukes if U.S. promises not to attack

Moon responded by saying Trump should get it.

Kim Dae-jung championed the so-called Sunshine policy of engagement with North Korea, and won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize after engineering the first inter-Korean summit with former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

WATCH: U.S. won’t be ‘played’ by North Korea, Trump says



During Monday’s meeting, Moon called for a joint study with the North of economic projects that could be resumed without violating international sanctions imposed on North Korea for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

“The study is to set in motion the programs that are not subject to sanctions, while exploring what the two Koreas could do when the sanctions are lifted in the future,” the official quoted Moon as saying.

READ MORE: Kim Jong Un to close North Korean nuclear test site, unify time zone with South Korea

The Trump administration has led a global effort to impose ever stricter sanctions on North Korea.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that Trump would maintain a “pressure campaign” of harsh sanctions on impoverished North Korea until Kim scraps his nuclear weapon program.

Late Saturday, Trump told Moon in a phone call that he was pleased the leaders of the two Koreas reaffirmed the goal of complete denuclearisation during their summit, South Korean officials said on Sunday.

The White House said Trump and Moon had “emphasized that a peaceful and prosperous future for North Korea is contingent upon its complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization.”

A senior adviser to Moon told Reuters last week that the South Korean government had a “comprehensive roadmap” that it was sharing with the United States ahead of Trump’s meeting with Kim.
South Korean president Moon Jae-in suggests that U.S. president Donald Trump should receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to help denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.