U.S. President Donald Trump says the United States has begun direct high level talks with North Korea. The statement comes weeks before a proposed summit between Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, visiting Trump for bilateral talks, expressed a desire for Japan's interests to also be on the table during the talks. VOA's Jesusemen Oni has more. </s> Palm Beach (United States): US president Donald Trump on Wednesday hailed a "great" clandestine meeting between his CIA chief and North Korea's leader, as he signalled that his improbable summit with Kim Jong-un will go ahead.

News of the Easter weekend talks between Mike Pompeo and the reclusive Kim was the latest in a series of revelations from the US leader that have fuelled hopes of a major diplomatic breakthrough with Pyongyang.

Heaping praise on Pompeo — the man he has already tapped to be the next secretary of state — Trump said the 54-year-old's covert mission to the North Korean capital had gone well.

"He just left North Korea. Had a great meeting with Kim Jong Un, and got along with him really well, really great," Trump said. "He's very smart but he gets along with people."

Trump earlier tweeted that the "meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed."

"Details of Summit are being worked out now," added the president, who is hosting Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe for two days of talks at his Florida retreat, which he calls the "Winter White House."

Neither Trump nor the White House offered details of what was discussed and it remains unclear if there is enough potential for an agreement to have the Trump-Kim summit, slated for early June, go ahead.

Officials and outside experts say it is still not clear that Kim, who depends on the military to remain in power, is willing to completely give up his nuclear weapons.

North Korean talk of "denuclearization" — which Trump has seemingly embraced — has in the past been code for removing America's military presence on the Korean peninsula, something long unthinkable in Washington.

"Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!" Trump added in the tweet.

Nonetheless, the flurry of diplomatic activity has raised hopes for a pair of upcoming and potentially historic summits.

Kim is expected to meet South Korea's president Moon Jae-in next week for landmark talks at which discussion of a formal peace declaration is now on the cards.

The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the two sides technically at war. The Demilitarised Zone between them bristles with minefields and fortifications.

Seoul's push to formally declare an end to inter-Korean hostilities would have been unthinkable just months ago.

"We are looking at the possibility of replacing the armistice regime on the Korean peninsula with a peace regime," a senior official at South Korea's presidential Blue House said on Wednesday.

"But this is not something we can do by ourselves. It needs close discussions with relevant parties including North Korea."

Trump earlier said that the summit could, with his "blessing," explore a peace treaty to formally end the conflict.

But reaching any final treaty would be fraught with complications.

While the US-led United Nations command, China and North Korea are signatories to the decades-old armistice, South Korea is not.

Both Pyongyang and Seoul claim sovereignty over the whole Korean peninsula, but a treaty could imply mutual recognition of each other.

Next week's meeting will be just the third summit between the North and South since the armistice was signed 65 years ago.

Key moments including Kim and Moon's first handshake will be televised live, both sides agreed at working-level talks on Wednesday, Seoul said.

Trump himself plans to hold a summit meeting with Kim within the next two months.

The pair have not spoken directly, the White House said, but the president revealed on Tuesday there had been contact at "very high levels" to prepare for the historic meeting - an apparent reference to Pompeo's visit.

Trump also said that "five locations" were being considered for the summit.

"That will be taking place probably in early June or before that, assuming things go well. It's possible things won't go well and we won't have the meetings and we'll just continue to go on this very strong path we have taken."

US officials say that no decision has yet been made on a meeting venue, but China, North Korea, South Korea, and Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone are seen as possible locations. </s> U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed developments on Wednesday at an inter-Korean summit in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang as "very exciting".

SEOUL: U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed developments on Wednesday at an inter-Korean summit in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang as "very exciting".

"Kim Jong Un has agreed to allow nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations, and to permanently dismantle a test site and launch pad in the presence of international experts," Trump said on Twitter, referring to agreements the North Korean leader made in talks with South Korea's President Moon Jae-in.

"In the meantime there will be no Rocket or Nuclear testing," Trump added.

Referring to the repatriation of remains of U.S. service people killed in the Korean War, which Kim and Moon also discussed, Trump said:

"Hero remains to continue being returned home to the United States. Also, North and South Korea will file a joint bid to host the 2032 Olympics. Very exciting!" </s> President Donald Trump meets with North Korean official Kim Yong Chol on June 1, 2018.

WASHINGTON — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's wish list for his June 12 meeting with President Trump at a resort in Singapore could shed light on the prospects for the summit.

Trump in the past promised "great things" for North Korea if it dismantles its nuclear program. On Friday, after meeting with the North's Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol, the president appeared to tamp down expectations for next week's meeting, calling it "a get-to-know-you kind of a situation," and "a process" that starts with building relationships.

Trump said the U.S. and North Korea may agree in Singapore to formally end the Korean War, which has been frozen with an armistice agreement since 1953. He said he no longer wants to speak of "maximum pressure" on North Korea, and said South Korea, Japan and China are expected to provide economic assistance to the North if the summit goes well. He implied that U.S. sanctions could be lifted at a later point, which would allow business relations between the North and the United States for the first time.

But he is likely to hear from Kim that the North seeks more than a deal on nuclear weapons or a peace treaty. Here's what Kim wants:

More: No one leaves early, and 4 other key things for a successful Trump-North Korea summit

More: Donald Trump: June 12 meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un back on

More: North Korea's isolation crumbling as Trump abandons 'maximum pressure' campaign

Kim's spokesman said last month that North Korea is not interested in giving up its nuclear program without a corresponding change in the U.S. military posture.

North Korea is not interested in "unilateral nuclear abandonment," Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said in a statement, according to North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

He accused the White House and State Department of attempting to turn North Korea into another Libya by insisting on "abandoning nuclear weapons first, compensating afterward."

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi relinquished his nuclear weapons development program in return for normalized relations with the United States, but he was deposed in a rebellion supported by NATO.

North Korea's agreements and statements indicate Kim wants normalized relations with the United States. “An end to U.S. enmity remains Kim Jong Un’s aim just as it was his grandfather’s and father’s for the past 30 years,” said Leon Sigal, author of Disarming Strangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea.

Kim may be willing to denuclearize and even take steps to disarm if Trump commits to end hostile relations with North Korea and takes action to show the United States means it, Sigal wrote in March in 38 North, an independent online journal that provides analysis of North Korea.

A problem for U.S. leaders has been that North Korea's totalitarian government is so cruel to its people and aggressive toward its neighbors that allowing normal trade would be politically unappetizing.

In his New Year's speech, Kim said his poor country was ready to shift to economic development.

Past negotiations also focused on economic benefits. The United States offered to arrange energy assistance from petroleum producers, build two light-water nuclear reactors that would be difficult to use for producing weapons, provide food assistance and lift sanctions.

April's meeting of the rival Korean leaders ended with South Korean President Moon Jae-in's promise to connect and modernize railroad lines and roads.

To keep that pledge, the South would need waivers from United Nations Security Council sanctions on North Korea, something Trump appears ready to agree to provide to the South, China and Japan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the United States would not provide any benefits until the North completely dismantled its nuclear program.

More: Donald Trump, North Korea's Kim Jong Un will likely save the details for after the summit

More: Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un: Still fighting the Korean War

More: Kim Jong Un's fires top military leaders: What does it mean?

North Korea has made agreements while still advancing its nuclear program and can be expected to continue doing the same, said Richard Fisher, a Korea and China analyst at the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

While Kim negotiates with Trump, his engineers are probably perfecting a weapon that can strike the U.S. mainland, Fisher said."They tested two ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) capable of reaching the United States," Fisher said. "They have not yet demonstrated that the missile could carry a warhead that would survive re-entry with some level of accuracy. I’m sure they’re working day and night to develop a viable warhead."

Kim's negotiations with Trump and Moon "allowed this megalomaniac leader to seem reasonable on the world stage," and furthers a shared North Korean and Chinese goal to reduce U.S. influence in northeast Asia, Fisher said.

"Prior to these negotiations, Kim Jong Un was seen as a missile-rattling rocket boy threat to the world. (Chinese President Xi Jinping) couldn’t embrace him," Fisher said. "Now that the negotiations have gone as far as they have, Xi can embrace this young leader and solidify their already very close cooperation."

Other leaders have too. Russia has invited Kim to a conference in Vladivostok in September, and KCNA announced Sunday that Syrian President Bashar Assad will be the first head of state to visit Kim in Pyongyang.

Kim and China seek an end to the U.S. military presence in South Korea, Fisher said. "They want the Americans off the Korean Peninsula. They want full range and freedom to intimidate South Korea even more and to isolate Japan," he said. "It's all part of a larger goal of forcing American power back to Hawaii and California." </s> U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he expects to hold a second summit with North Korea "quite soon" and hailed the "tremendous progress" made so far.

"The relationship is very good with North Korea. We have many things in store," Trump told reporters at the United Nations in New York. "It looks like we will have a second summit quite soon."

Trump said North Korean leader Kim Jong Jung had asked for the summit in a "beautiful letter" and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was working out the details.

Pompeo has offered to meet his North Korean counterpart this week in New York where the U.N. General Assembly will take place.

Trump said progress with the north was significant and the relationship was looking "much different" than it did a year ago. He had previously vowed to bring down "fire and fury" on Pyongyang and dubbed Kim "Little Rocket Man."

Trump is set to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in while in New York.

The two Koreas held their own summit last week in North Korea.

The U.S. is looking for Pyongyang to completely denuclearize but North Korea is asking for reciprocal measures from Washington on the Korean peninsula. </s> SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States was stopping “very provocative” and costly military exercises with South Korea to facilitate denuclearization negotiations with North Korea.

The United States and its ally South Korea hold regular military exercises to the fury of North Korea, which has long seen the drills as preparations to invade it.

“The war games are very expensive, we pay for the majority of them,” Trump told a news conference in Singapore after a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“Under the circumstances, that we’re negotiating ... I think it’s inappropriate to be having war games.” </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had been "very honourable" and that discussions ahead of a planned meeting between the two leaders were going well.

"We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible, and we think that's a great thing for the world," Trump told reporters during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House.

"We're having ... very good discussions. Kim Jong Un, he really has been very open and I think very honourable from everything we're seeing," Trump added.

Trump has said he could meet with Kim in late May or June.

The United States is pressing North Korea to denuclearize and has said it would keep up a policy of "maximum pressure" on Pyongyang to achieve that goal.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday North Korea had expressed a commitment to "complete denuclearization" of the Korean peninsula, and North Korea said on Saturday it would immediately suspend nuclear and missile tests.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. </s> US President Donald Trump says North Korea wants to hold a high-stakes meeting “as soon as possible” and he is praising Kim Jong Un as “very open” and “very honorable.” Trump is addressing his upcoming plans to meet with the North Korean leader during his discussions at the White House with French President Emmanuel Macron. Trump’s praise for the North Korean dictator stands in stark contrast to his past comments in which he referred to Kim as “Little Rocket Man.” The Trump-Kim meeting is expected in May or June. South Korean President Moon Jae-in is meeting with Kim on Friday to kick off a new round of high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang. </s> "National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster of the United States, National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong of the Republic of Korea, and Secretary General of the National Security Secretariat Shotaro Yachi of Japan held a trilateral meeting on March 17 and 18 in San Francisco to discuss the permanent denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the planned inter-Korean summit and United States-Democratic People’s Republic of Korea summit," the release said.

On March 5-6, a high-ranking South Korean delegation visited North Korea for talks with Kim Jong-un. South Korean diplomats later delivered a message from Kim Jong-un to Donald Trump, in which the former expressed his willingness to hold direct talks. Trump accepted the invitation to meet with Kim by the end of May.
U.S. President Donald Trump states North Korea was recently seeking talks with the United States.