SEOUL–North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his commitment to “complete” denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and to a planned meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Sunday.
“I told Chairman Kim that if he decides and put into practice a complete denuclearization, President Trump is willing for economic cooperation and ending hostile relations,” Moon said.
Moon said that during the impromptu meeting with Kim on Saturday, they both expressed their wish for the North Korea-U.S. summit to be held successfully.
“Chairman Kim and I have agreed that the June 12 summit should be held successfully, and that our quest for the Korean peninsula’s denuclearization and a perpetual peace regime should not be halted,” Moon said.
Moon also said that Kim reaffirmed his commitment to working towards a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korean state-media KCNA said Kim and Moon agreed to hold high-level talks between their two nations on June 1 to take steps to quickly implement their efforts to denuclearize the peninsula.
“We’ve not been able to conduct the preparations between our two teams that would be necessary to have a successful summit,” Pompeo said.
“Very good news to receive the warm and productive statement from North Korea,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “We will soon see where it will lead, hopefully to long and enduring prosperity and peace. Only time (and talent) will tell!”
“A meeting was held because officials of both countries thought that meeting face-to-face would be better than a phone call,” Moon said on Sunday.
The impromptu meeting on Saturday lasted two hours and was the second between the two sides, following the historic meeting on April 27 when the two Koreas said in the Panmunjom declaration that they would work toward a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.
Video and a photo released by South Korea’s presidential Blue House on Saturday showed Kim hugging Moon and kissing him on the cheek three times as he saw Moon off after their meeting at Tongilgak, the North’s building in the truce village, which lies in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) - the 2.5-mile wide buffer that runs along the heavily armed military border.
Moon is the only South Korean leader to have met a North Korean leader twice, both times in the DMZ, which is a symbol of the unending hostilities between the nations after the Korean War ended in 1953 in a truce, not a peace treaty.
On Saturday, Trump said that talks in preparation for the June 12 summit in Singapore are now progressing very well.
“We’re doing very well in terms of the summit with North Korea,” Trump said at the White House. “It’s moving along very nicely. So we’re looking at June 12th in Singapore. That hasn’t changed. So, we'll see what happens.”
A White House team will leave as scheduled for Singapore this weekend to prepare for the possible summit, a White House spokeswoman said on Saturday.
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