SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a surprise meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday to ensure a summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump goes off successfully, South Korean officials said.

It was the clearest sign yet that the on-again off-again summit between Trump and Kim is likely to be held as initially agreed, in Singapore on June 12.

The unannounced meeting at the Panmunjom border village between Moon and Kim came a month after they held the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade at the same venue and declared they would toward a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

“The two leaders candidly exchanged views about making the North Korea-U.S. summit a successful one and about implementing the Panmunjom Declaration,” South Korea’s presidential spokesman said in a statement.

Moon, who returned to Seoul earlier this week after a meeting with Trump, will announce details of the meeting with Kim on Sunday morning.

Trump said on Friday that Washington was having “productive talks” with Pyongyang about reinstating the June 12 meeting, just a day after cancelling it.

Politico magazine reported that an advance team of 30 White House and State Department officials was preparing to leave for Singapore later this weekend.

Reuters reported earlier this week the team was scheduled to discuss the agenda and logistics for the summit with North Korean officials. The delegation was to include White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Hagin and deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel, U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Trump said in a Twitter post late on Friday: “We are having very productive talks about reinstating the Summit which, if it does happen, will likely remain in Singapore on the same date, June 12th., and, if necessary, will be extended beyond that date.”

Trump had earlier indicated the summit could be salvaged after welcoming a conciliatory statement from North Korea saying it remained open to talks.

“It was a very nice statement they put out,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’ll see what happens - it could even be the 12th.”

“We’re talking to them now. They very much want to do it. We’d like to do it,” he said.

The comments came just a day after Trump canceled the meeting, citing Pyongyang’s “open hostility.”

After years of tension over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, Kim and Trump agreed this month to hold what would be the first meeting between a serving U.S. president and a North Korean leader. The plan followed months of war threats and insults between the leaders over North Korea’s development of missiles capable of reaching the United States.

Trump scrapped the meeting in a letter to Kim on Thursday after repeated threats by North Korea to pull out over what it saw as confrontational remarks by U.S. officials demanding unilateral disarmament. Trump cited North Korean hostility in cancelling the summit.

In Pyongyang, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said North Korea’s criticisms had been a reaction to American rhetoric and that current antagonism showed “the urgent necessity” for the summit.

He said North Korea regretted Trump’s decision to cancel and remained open to resolving issues “regardless of ways, at any time.”

Kim Kye Gwan said North Korea had appreciated Trump having made the bold decision to work toward a summit.

“We even inwardly hoped that what is called ‘Trump formula’ would help clear both sides of their worries and comply with the requirements of our side and would be a wise way of substantial effect for settling the issue,” he said.

North Korea also went ahead with a plan to destroy its only known nuclear site on Thursday, the most concrete action yet since pledging to cease all nuclear and long-range missile tests last month.

Dozens of international journalists left North Korea on Saturday after observing the demolition of the underground tunnels in Punggye-ri, where all of the North’s six nuclear tests were conducted including its latest and largest in September.

Trump’s latest about-face sent officials scrambling in Washington. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters diplomats were “still at work” and said Trump had just sent a note out on the summit, which could be back on “if our diplomats can pull it off.”

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Katina Adams declined to give details of any diplomatic contacts but said: “As the president said in his letter to Chairman Kim, dialogue between the two is the only dialogue that matters. If North Korea is serious, then we look forward to hearing from them at the highest levels.”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters Trump did not want a meeting that was “just a political stunt.”

“He wants to get something that’s a long-lasting and an actual real solution. And if they are ready to do that then ... we’re certainly ready to have those conversations,” she said. </s> Summit or not, giant gulf separates US-NKorea on nukes

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even if conciliatory rhetoric revives U.S.-North Korea summit plans, President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un are still left with the gaping disconnect over what a deal on North Korea's nukes would look like.

Observers of the soap opera-style Trump-Kim summit drama that has played out this week could be forgiven for thinking that a fragile courtship is underway, where the tenor of each side's statements will determine whether the two can agree to sit down together.

But lying at the root of the North's recent barrage of negative rhetoric that prompted Trump to cancel the summit is a fundamental difference of views on the path to denuclearization. Reconciling those views may determine not just the success of any future meeting but whether a summit is in fact feasible.

"You could look at this as trash talking in anticipation of the big game," said Christopher Hill, the lead U.S. negotiator with North Korea under the George W. Bush administration. "Frankly speaking, I think it's more serious."

Trump's letter to Kim on Thursday blamed "tremendous anger and open hostility" by Pyongyang for derailing the June 12 meeting in Singapore. Trump changed his tune after North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan responded not with more threats but qualified praise of the president and openness for talks. Trump said Friday that the two sides were talking about putting the summit back on track, possibly on the originally planned date.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea on Saturday expressed cautious relief about the revived talks for a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following a whirlwind 24 hours that saw Trump canceling the highly-anticipated meeting before saying it's potentially back on.

The statement by Seoul's presidential office came hours after Trump welcomed North Korea's conciliatory response to his Thursday letter withdrawing from the summit with Kim and said that the meeting might be getting back on track. Trump later on Saturday tweeted that the summit, if it does happen, will likely take place on June 12 in Singapore as originally planned.

"We see it as fortunate that the embers of dialogue between North Korea and the United States weren't fully extinguished and are coming alive again," Seoul's presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a statement. "We are carefully watching the developments."

South Korea, which brokered the talks between Washington and Pyongyang, was caught off guard by Trump's abrupt cancellation of the summit citing hostility in recent North Korean comments. South Korean President Moon Jae-said Trump's decision left him "perplexed" and was "very regrettable." He urged Washington and Pyongyang to resolve their differences through "more direct and closer dialogue between their leaders."

Moon and Kim held a historic summit in April where they announced vague aspirations for a nuclear-free peninsula and permanent peace, which Seoul has tried to sell as a meaningful breakthrough to set up the summit with Trump.

Giuliani says White House wants briefing on classified info

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's legal team wants a briefing on the classified information shared with lawmakers about the origins of the FBI investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. And they may take it to the Justice Department as part of an effort to scuttle the ongoing special counsel probe.

Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's attorneys, told The Associated Press on Friday that the White House hopes to get a readout of the information next week, particularly about the use of a longtime government informant who approached members of Trump's campaign in a possible bid to glean intelligence on Russian efforts to sway the election.

Trump has made unproven claims of FBI misconduct and political bias and has denounced the asset as "a spy."

BEIJING (AP) — President Donald Trump's abrupt withdrawal from his planned summit with North Korea raises the stakes for China to show that it can steer the North toward easing tensions over its nuclear program. But despite a recent warming in ties, Beijing's influence over its neighbor may be overstated.

Trump's cancellation of the June 12 meeting in Singapore with Kim Jong Un would appear to make the North Korean leader more reliant on China. Kim had only weeks earlier been sipping tea and strolling through seaside gardens in the port of Dalian with Chinese President Xi Jinping on a surprise trip to China that seemed designed to project Beijing's closeness with the North.

Trump, who now suggests there's still a chance of holding a summit, blamed Kim's trip to China for creating an unwelcome "change in attitude" by the North Korean leader, a view shared by some observers. "The winner at this moment is Chinese President Xi Jinping," wrote retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, in a commentary.

But Trump might have misjudged Kim's attitude and China's role, said Cheng Xiaohe, an expert at Renmin University's School of International Studies in Beijing.

"China is not a disruptive element," Cheng said. He said Xi's meeting with Kim was meant to boost the inexperienced and isolated North Korean leader's confidence in dealing with complex diplomacy.

No rain in sight: Fire fears force land closures in Arizona

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Dry pine needles and dead wood snapped under fire prevention officer Matt Engbring's boots as he hiked a half-mile into the woods in search of a makeshift campsite that had served as one man's home until this week when the area was closed because of the escalating threat of massive wildfires.

Engbring walked past small ravines where wind quickly could carry embers and by the charred remains of a campfire, finally reaching the spot where John Dobson had been living among ponderosa pines in Arizona's Coconino National Forest.

He spotted Dobson earlier as he was leaving the forest with his bicycle and issued a warning that he'll likely repeat over the busy Memorial Day weekend as tourists flock to Arizona's cooler mountainous areas to hike, bike, camp and fish.

"The area is closed now, and I can't allow you to go back in," he said.

Many parts of the West are dealing with drought, but nowhere else has more state and federal land been closed to recreation than in Arizona where conditions are ripe for large-scale wildfires. Portions of the Apache-Sitgreaves, Coconino, Kaibab and Tonto national forests are closed because the dry vegetation quickly can go up in flames, firefighters would have a hard time stopping it, and homes and water resources are at risk.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior Environmental Protection Agency officials have been working closely with a conservative group that dismisses climate change to rally like-minded people for public hearings on science and global warming. Recently released emails show they also recruited help to counter negative news coverage and tout Administrator Scott Pruitt's stewardship of the agency.

John Konkus, EPA's deputy associate administrator for public affairs, repeatedly reached out to senior staffers at the Heartland Institute. Emails show Konkus and the Heartland Institute mustering scores of potential invitees known for rejecting scientific warnings of man-made climate-change.

The emails were released after a lawsuit by environmental groups under the Freedom of Information Act.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has long made immigration a top priority. He has spent recent weeks publicly hammering Congress to crack down on "legal loopholes" he says allow criminals to enter the country illegally.

But behind the scenes, Trump has shown little interest in jumping into an intensifying Capitol Hill debate over immigration legislation that many believe is unlikely to ever reach his desk.

House Republicans — from both the right and the center — drive an effort to force votes on immigration proposals. That includes legislation that would provide young "Dreamer" immigrants a path to legal status and beef up border security, but may fall short of funding Trump's promised wall along the southern border.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An aging North Korean nuclear strategist involved in now-dormant disarmament deals. His former interpreter in international negotiations who is now North Korea's highest-ranking female diplomat.

Kim Kye Gwan and Choe Son Hui are among the best-known North Korean officials after leader Kim Jong Un and his family members. They are in the news again now after their recent back-to-back comments about the United States were blamed for President Donald Trump's abrupt cancellation on Thursday of a much-anticipated summit with Kim Jong Un. On Friday, Trump said the two sides were working to put the meeting back on track.

A look at who the officials are and how their comments led Trump to spike the summit planned for June 12 in Singapore:

DUBLIN (AP) — Official counting began Saturday in Ireland's historic abortion rights referendum, with two exit polls predicting an overwhelming victory for those seeking to end the country's strict ban.

The Irish Times and RTE television exit polls suggest the Irish people have voted overwhelmingly to repeal a 1983 constitutional amendment that requires authorities to treat a fetus and its mother as equals under the law. That effectively bans abortions, and currently, terminations are only allowed when a woman's life is at risk.

The exit polls are predictions only, with official results expected to be announced Saturday afternoon. Paper ballots must be counted and tallied.

If the projected numbers hold up, the referendum would be a landmark in Irish women's fight for abortion rights and a key turning point for a largely Catholic nation that has seen a wave of liberalization in recent years. It would also likely end the need for thousands of Irish women to travel abroad — mostly to neighboring Britain — for abortions.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who campaigned for repeal, did not claim victory based on the exit polls but seemed very confident late Friday night.

MIAMI (AP) — A storm moving slowly through the Caribbean Sea is threatening to bring heavy rainfall, mudslides, and flash floods to parts of Mexico, Cuba, Florida and the U.S. Gulf Coast this weekend.

Subtropical Storm Alberto — the first named storm of the 2018 hurricane season — was roiling parts of coastal Mexico and Cuba with rip currents and dangerous surf on Saturday. Both countries issued tropical storm watches for portions of their coastlines, with rain totals in some isolated areas of up to 25 inches.

U.S. forecasters followed suit by issuing a tropical storm watch for parts of the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle southwest of Tallahassee to the New Orleans metropolitan area.

At 5 a.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Alberto was moving north-northeastward toward the Yucatan Channel and was centered about 95 miles (105 kilometers) southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. Its top sustained winds were 40 mph (65 kph). A gradual strengthening was expected through the weekend as it moves north.

The U.S. was expected to start feeling Alberto's effects Saturday. The hurricane center said up to 12 inches of rain was possible across the Florida Keys and southern and southwestern Florida. Residents in the storm's expected path were advised to monitor the storm's progress. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Donald Trump: ‘It’s a get-to-know-you situation’

Donald Trump's summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore on 12 June is back on, the US president says, a week after it was scrapped.

Mr Trump made the announcement after talks with a senior North Korean envoy at the White House.

The envoy, General Kim Yong-chol, hand-delivered a letter from the North Korean leader to President Trump.

Mr Trump at first said the letter was "very interesting" but later said he had not yet opened it.

He also said the issue of formally ending the Korean War would be on the table in Singapore.

The 1950-53 conflict only ended with a truce, not a final peace treaty.

"We'll be meeting on June 12th in Singapore. It went very well," President Trump told reporters on the White House lawn.

"We've got to know their people very well," he added.

Mr Trump cautioned that the summit might not achieve a final deal on the North's controversial nuclear programme.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US-North Korea: Trump gets an unusually large letter

"I never said it goes in one meeting. I think it's going to be a process, but the relationships are building and that's very positive," he said.

The historic meeting between Mr Trump and Kim Jong-un would be the first between sitting US and North Korean leaders. President Trump has offered to help rebuild the North's economy if it scraps its nuclear weapons. Kim Jong-un says he is committed to "denuclearisation" in some form but his precise demands are unclear.

Two weeks of on-off negotiations

16 May: North Korea says it may pull out of the summit, accusing the US of reckless statements and sinister intentions

24 May: Donald Trump cancels the summit, blaming "tremendous anger and open hostility" from the North

26 May: Kim Jong-un and South Korea's Moon Jae-in meet for surprise talks at the demilitarised border between the two countries

1 June: Senior North Korean envoy General Kim Yong-chol delivers a letter from Mr Kim in person at the White House. Mr Trump says the summit on 12 June is back on

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Singapore has been getting ready for the US-North Korea summit

Gen Kim Yong-chol's visit to Washington came a day after he met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York.

Mr Pompeo described their talks about denuclearisation "substantive".

"President Trump and I believe Chairman Kim is the kind of leader who can make those kinds of decisions. And that in the coming weeks and months, we will have the opportunity to test whether or not this is the case," he said.

Mr Kim's letter reportedly expresses his interest in meeting without making any significant concessions or threats in regards to denuclearisation, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a foreign government official who was briefed on the contents.

Trump the diplomat basks in the spotlight

Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington

Image copyright Getty Images

This is Trump diplomacy, unfolding in real time. If it's not what the world expects, if it's statecraft as we've never seen it before, that's because this is a president unlike any the American people have elected before.

From "fire and fury" to a relationship "as good as it's been in a long time". The summit is on, then it's off, now it's on again. The president, as witnessed by his impromptu 16 minute question-and-answer session with gathered reporters, is basking in the world's spotlight as he conducts these historic negotiations.

Passing legislation is hard. Coping with the Russia investigation is infuriating. Welcoming to the White House the "second most powerful man in North Korea", as Mr Trump called Kim Yong-chol, is comparatively easy.

Even as Mr Trump heralded the progress being made, he was downplaying expectations for the upcoming summit, which he said was never planned to end in some grand signing ceremony.

For the moment, it appears the Singapore meeting will be only a first step - a chance for a historic photo-op and a hope for breakthroughs to come.

For a president who many thought last year was barrelling toward war, however, that appears more than enough.

How did we get here?

North Korea has carried out six nuclear tests and numerous tests of ballistic missiles, all the while maintaining a barrage of belligerent rhetoric against its enemies, particularly the US.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The nuclear word Trump and Kim can't agree on

It claims to have developed a nuclear weapon small enough to be carried by a long-range missile, although this remains unverified.

Previous attempts to negotiate with North Korea have failed, but earlier this year Pyongyang held direct talks with Seoul and the two Korean leaders held a historic summit in April.

With relations thawing, the US has pledged to help rebuild North Korea's economy if it agrees to give up its nuclear weapons.

But the US wants denuclearisation first and it is unclear whether Mr Kim will agree to fully abandon his nuclear arsenal. </s> WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is canceling the planned June 12 summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, citing the "tremendous anger and open hostility" in a recent statement from North Korea.

Trump says in a letter to Kim released Thursday by the White House that based on the statement, he felt it was "inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting."

The president says the North Koreans talk about their nuclear capabilities, "but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used."

This is a developing story. Stay with KSAT 12 both online and on-air for more information. </s> A week after US President Donald Trump called off the historic summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, he has announced that it’s back on.

According to BBC, Trump made the revelation on Friday after receiving a letter from Kim hand-delivered by senior North Korean envoy, Kim Yong-chol, to the White House.

Trump, speaking to reporters about the letter, had said it was “very interesting,” but later revealed he hadn’t read it yet.

The summit will take place on June 12 as earlier planned, he said.

We’ll be meeting on June 12th in Singapore. It went very well. We’re meeting with the chairman on June 12 and I think it’s probably going to be a very successful — ultimately a successful process

He dismissed the aggressive statements earlier received from North Korea, which he had given as a reason for the earlier cancellation, saying: </s> This combination of pictures created on May 24, 2018 shows President Trump at the National Building Museum May 22, 2018 in Washington, and an undated photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 10, 2016 of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on May 9, 2016.

SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in called the cancellation of next month's landmark summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "very regrettable and unfortunate" and urged the two leaders to talk to each other directly.

Moon issued the statement after convening a late-night emergency meeting Thursday at the Blue House with top security aides and Cabinet members in response to Trump's abrupt cancellation of the scheduled June 12 summit in Singapore.

Moon said that establishing enduring peace and the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula are “historic tasks that cannot be abandoned or delayed.”

The Trump-Kim talks would have been the first meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.

The cancellation appeared to take the South Korean leader by surprise. In an initial response, Moon's spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom, told reporters, "We are trying to figure out what President Trump's intention is and what it's exact meaning is."

Moon's top press secretary, Yoon Young-chan, quoted the South Korean president as saying it may be difficult to resolve the sensitive and difficult diplomatic issues through traditional means of communications.

"I hope (the countries) will resolve such issues through more direct and close dialogue between their leaders," he added, according to the Yonhap news agency.

In a letter to Kim released by the White House, Trump said he decided to cancel the meeting “based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement.”

It came hours after a North Korean official, Vice Foreign Affairs Minister Choe Son Hui, called Vice President Pence’s recent remarks comparing the reclusive nation with Libya as “ignorant” and “stupid,” according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Pence had said North Korea could end up like Libya if it doesn’t make a nuclear deal with Washington. Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi gave up his nuclear program in a deal with the U.S. and Britain in the early 2000s but was overthrown and brutally killed by Washington-backed rebels in 2011.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was "deeply concerned" by the cancellation of the summit.

North Korea, meanwhile, demolished its Punggye-ri nuclear test site on Thursday as it earlier said it would do ahead of the summit. All six of North Korea's nuclear tests have been held at the site.

Before Trump canceled the summit, North Korea said a nuclear showdown with the U.S. could again be possible, responding after Trump said Tuesday that his meeting with Kim might be delayed or even canceled.

“We will neither beg the U.S. for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us,” Choe said, the KCNA reported.

“Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States,” she said.

"In case the U.S. offends against our goodwill and clings to unlawful and outrageous acts, I will put forward a suggestion to our supreme leadership for reconsidering the DPRK-U.S. summit," Choe added, using the North’s official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

More: Trump cancels meeting with North Korea, citing 'tremendous anger and open hostility' </s> President Donald Trump says the U.S. will know by next week whether his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be held on June 12 in Singapore as scheduled.

"It could very well be June 12th," Trump said Wednesday. "If we go, it'll be a great thing for North Korea."

North Korea has indicated it might call off the meeting due to disagreements on conditions by the United States for unilateral denuclearization.

Trump on Tuesday, during a meeting with visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in, said the summit might not be held next month.

"If it doesn't happen, maybe it will happen later," Trump said.

The president said, "There are certain conditions that we want. I think we will get those conditions."

Asked about the conditions, Trump replied, "I'd rather not say." But he stated that the denuclearization of North Korea "must take place."

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has twice met with Kim in Pyongyang in preparation for the Singapore summit, said Wednesday, "Our posture will not change until we see credible steps taken toward the complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." </s> Top American and North Korean officials are holding a full day of meetings in New York aimed at deciding whether a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can be salvaged.

Top American and North Korean officials are holding a full day of meetings in New York aimed at deciding whether a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can be salvaged.

North Korean and US officials holding full day of meetings to discuss summit

Kim, the former military intelligence chief and one of the North Korean leader’s closest aides, landed mid-afternoon on Wednesday on an Air China flight from Beijing. Good working dinner with Kim Yong Chol in New York tonight. Steak, corn, and cheese on the menu. pic.twitter.com/1pu4K3oym7 — Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) May 31, 2018 During his unusual visit, Kim had dinner for about an hour and a half with Mr Pompeo.

The two planned a “day full of meetings” on Thursday, the White House said. Their talks will be aimed at determining whether a meeting between Mr Trump and Kim Jong Un, originally scheduled for June 12 but later cancelled by the president, can be restored, US officials have said.

“Good working dinner with Kim Yong Chol in New York tonight,” Mr Pompeo tweeted on Wednesday. “Steak, corn, and cheese on the menu.” The talks come as preparations for the highly anticipated summit in Singapore were barrelling forward on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, despite lingering uncertainty about whether it will really occur, and when.

We have put a great team together for our talks with North Korea. Meetings are currently taking place concerning Summit, and more. Kim Young Chol, the Vice Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York. Solid response to my letter, thank you! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2018 “If it happens, we’ll certainly be ready,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of the Singapore summit.

Regarding the date for the meeting, she added: “We’re going to continue to shoot for June 12.” North Korea’s flurry of diplomatic activity following a torrid run in nuclear weapons and missile tests in 2017 suggests that Kim Jong Un is eager for sanctions relief to build his economy and the international legitimacy the summit with Mr Trump would provide.

However, there are lingering doubts on whether Kim will ever fully relinquish his nuclear arsenal, which he may see as his only guarantee of survival in a region surrounded by enemies. Mr Pompeo, Mr Trump’s former CIA chief, has travelled to Pyongyang twice in recent weeks for meetings with Kim Jong Un, and has said there is a “shared understanding” between the two sides about what they hope to achieve in talks.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, exits a residential building after meeting with Kim Yong Chol in New York (Julie Jacobson/AP) South Korean media speculated that Mr Pompeo could make a third trip to Pyongyang and that Kim Yong Chol was carrying a personal letter from Kim Jong Un and might push to travel to Washington to meet with Mr Trump. North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York is its sole diplomatic presence in the United States. That suggests Kim might have chosen to first go to New York because it would make it easier for him to communicate with officials in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.

North Korea and the United States are still technically at war and have no diplomatic ties because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. Mr Trump views a summit as a legacy-defining opportunity to make the nuclear deal that has evaded others, but he pledged to walk away from the meeting if he believed the North was not serious about discussing dismantling its nuclear programme. </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.
U.S. President Donald Trump tweets that "very productive talks" are being held with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on reinstating the June 12 Singapore summit, which he had cancelled Thursday.