The U.S. has confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a Trump administration official said.

This is the first tangible sign that Kim is still willing to meet with President Donald Trump since the North first proposed the summit last month.

Trump has said he wants to meet with Kim before the end of May. Details on the talks are still unclear, including the exact agenda and place.

But U.S. officials have said there have been secret contacts between Washington and Pyongyang.

Trump has consistently called for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

WATCH: Denuclearization

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?In the past, North Korea pledged to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for food aid and easing economic sanctions. Those promises were always broken.

Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at The Center for the National Interest in Washington, says North Korea is going to make some kind of demand just to have the talks take place, and that its demands for agreeing to abandon its nuclear weapons "are going to be astronomically high."

"They could ask for hundreds of billions of dollars in economic aid," Kazianis told VOA. "They could ask for the removal of U.S. troops from the Korean peninsula. They could even ask for say South Korea to get rid of all of its nuclear technology and nuclear reactors." </s> North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his commitment to "complete denuclearisation of Korean Peninsula ", in a joint agreement signed with President Donald Trump Tuesday.The text made no mention of US demands for "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation" -- jargon for scrapping weapons and committing to inspections -- but did restate a vaguer commitment, AFP saw in a photo of the document. </s> North Korea is willing to talk to the United States about denuclearization, a senior U.S. official said Sunday.

These are the first tangible signs that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is still willing to meet with President Donald Trump since the North first proposed the summit last month.

Trump has said he wants to meet with Kim before the end of May. Details on the talks are still unclear, including the exact agenda and place.

But U.S. officials have said there have been secret contacts between Washington and Pyongyang.

Trump has consistently called for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

In the past, North Korea pledged to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for food aid and easing economic sanctions. Those promises were always broken. </s> SEOUL: Top US, South Korean and Japanese officials have discussed how to achieve a complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula ahead of upcoming inter-Korean and US-North Korean summit talks. Seoul has said previously that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to hold summit talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April. Seoul says Kim proposed meeting with President Donald Trump , and Trump agreed to him by the end of May.The developments have raised hopes for a potential breakthrough in the North Korean nuclear crisis.US National Security Adviser HR McMaster met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in San Francisco for talks over the weekend on denuclearization and the summit talks.South Korea's presidential office says the three agreed to maintain close trilateral cooperation. </s> 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> The US Secretary of State is playing down North Korea's claim that America had a 'gangster-like mindset' during recent talks on denuclearisation. Mike Pompeo says he is eager to see Kim Jong Un follow through on the North's commitment to denuclearise the Korean peninsula. </s> BEIJING: North Korea leader Kim Jong Un told an envoy of Chinese president Xi Jinping that North Korea is upholding the denuclearisation agreement it reached with the United States this year, China's state broadcaster said.Chinese parliament chief Li Zhanshu , who is in Pyongyang for celebrations marking 70 years since the founding of North Korea, was told by Kim that North Korea hopes the United States keeps to its side of the agreement, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.Kim met U.S. President Donald Trump in June and agreed to "work toward the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula ", but negotiations appear to have stalled since then, with both sides increasingly critical of each other over a lack of progress. </s> SEOUL, June 1 (Reuters) - North Korea’s will for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula remains “unchanged, consistent and fixed,” said leader Kim Jong Un, according to the North’s state news agency on Friday.

Making the remarks in a meeting with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Kim added he hoped North Korea-U.S. relations and denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula would both be solved on a “stage-by-stage” basis, KCNA said.

The report also said Kim and Lavrov agreed to boost exchanges and cooperation between North Korea and Russia, with the two agreeing on a bilateral summit this year. </s> BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea leader Kim Jong Un told an envoy of Chinese president Xi Jinping that North Korea is upholding the denuclearisation agreement it reached with the United States this year, China’s state broadcaster said.

Chinese parliament chief Li Zhanshu, who is in Pyongyang for celebrations marking 70 years since the founding of North Korea, was told by Kim that North Korea hopes the United States keeps to its side of the agreement, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Kim met U.S. President Donald Trump in June and agreed to “work toward the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, but negotiations appear to have stalled since then, with both sides increasingly critical of each other over a lack of progress.
The United States says North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has indicated willingness to discuss denuclearisation.