North Korea has confirmed to the US that it is willing to negotiate about the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, clearing the way for a summit meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump, US officials said.
"The US has confirmed that Kim Jong-un is willing to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," said a senior administration official on Sunday. A second official also confirmed that Pyongyang representatives had delivered a direct message to Washington, the Wall Street Journal reported.
At the same time, US officials cautioned that Pyongyang offered no details about its negotiating position and noted that North Korea has violated past agreements during the George W. Bush administration to freeze its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
It was unclear what kind of concessions the US would be willing to make to secure commitments from Pyongyang.
The unprecedented summit is slated to happen in May and will be the first time a sitting US President would meet the leader of North Korea. Preparations for the meeting included secret, direct talks with North Korea, Trump administration officials were cited as saying by the New York Times.
US and North Korean intelligence officials reportedly spoke many times and met in a third country.
Meanwhile, South and North Korea will also be holding a summit on April 27, the first meeting between the leaders of the two sides in 11 years.
Word of Kim's willingness to talk about denuclearisation came the day before John R. Bolton, who has made the legal case for a pre-emptive attack on North Korea, was to officially begin work as Trump's new National Security Adviser.
--IANS
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