North Korea鈥檚 leader Kim Jong Un discussed future talks with the US at a party meeting, state media reported Tuesday, in his first official mention of dialogue with Washington ahead of a planned summit with President Donald Trump.
Trump agreed last month to a landmark summit with the nuclear-armed North 鈥� which would be the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader 鈥� but no specific dates or venue have been set, with questions mounting over Pyongyang鈥檚 participation.
At the meeting of party officials Monday, Kim discussed the 鈥渄evelopment of the north-south relations at present and the prospect of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue鈥�, the official KCNA news agency said, referring to the North by its official acronym.
He delivered a report 鈥渙n the development of the recent situation on the Korean peninsula鈥�, including the separate summit with South Korea to be held later this month, it said.
In a growing rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, Kim is scheduled to meet the South鈥檚 president Moon Jae-in for a rare inter-Korean summit on April 27.
Trump has agreed to meet Kim for a historic US-North Korean summit to discuss denuclearization as soon as next month.
But the North had remained publicly silent on the US summit since its leader鈥檚 invitation to talks was delivered to Trump by South Korean officials last month.
As officials in Washington scrambled to prepare for the prospective meeting, the weeks-long silence had reportedly made the White House nervous that Seoul had overstated the North鈥檚 willingness to negotiate over its own nuclear arsenal.
Kim鈥檚 remarks on Monday break that public silence, although he did not specifically refer to a 鈥渟ummit鈥� with Trump.
Following multiple media reports of back-channel talks between the Cold War rivals, Trump said Monday he planned to meet Kim in 鈥淢ay or early June鈥�.鈥�
鈥淚 think there will be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully there will be a deal on denuking,鈥� he said.
鈥淗opefully it will be a relationship that will be much different than it has been for many, many years.鈥�
Diplomatic activity
North Korea鈥檚 recent frenetic diplomatic activity marks a stunning turnaround after a year of heightened tensions which saw the North fire multiple missiles and carry out its most powerful nuclear test, further isolating the regime and triggering a fiery war of words with Trump.
Since sending a high-profile delegation along with athletes to the Winter Games in the South in February, Kim has made his international debut with a visit to Beijing 鈥� his first overseas trip since taking power in 2011.
The North鈥檚 foreign minister Ri Yong Ho arrived in Moscow on Monday after making stops in Beijing, Azerbaijan and other former Soviet republics.
Ri also paid a visit last month to Sweden, which acts as a diplomatic go-between for Washington and Pyongyang.
If the summit does take place, many remain skeptical about the whether a meeting between the two notoriously unpredictable leaders can succeed.
It is scheduled to take place without the months of groundwork that usually precedes such meetings.
No specifics have yet emerged concerning the date or venue of the proposed summit, with a third country such as Mongolia or Sweden under consideration to host the talks, according to multiple reports.
Beyond that, a detailed agenda for the talks will need to be set.
Washington鈥檚聽long-held stance is that it will not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea. That means it wants to see 鈥渃omplete, verifiable, and irreversible鈥� denuclearization 鈥� a very high bar.
The North has previously demanded the withdrawal of US troops based in the South and the end of the security alliance between Seoul and Washington 鈥� an extraordinary concession that it is hard to imagine any previous US president acceding to.聽聽聽聽聽 /muf