North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has invited Donald Trump to meet him, an unprecedented overture which the US leader has said he will accept.
The shock announcement that a meeting could take place as early as May was made by South Korean officials in Washington.
They passed a verbal message from Mr Kim to Mr Trump and said North Korea’s leader “committed to denuclearisation”.
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said it was “a milestone for peace”.
“If President Trump and Chairman Kim meet following an inter-Korean summit, complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula will be put on the right track in earnest,” he said.
South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong, who earlier this week met Mr Kim in Pyongyang, announced the development after briefing Mr Trump at the White House.
North Korea has not yet issued any official comment on the week’s developments.
Mr Trump said the development was “great progress” but that sanctions on North Korea would remain in place until a firm agreement is reached.
His press secretary Sarah Sanders said they would meet “at a place and time to be determined”.
However analysts remain sceptical about what such rapidly arranged talks – normally the culmination of years of diplomacy – can achieve.
source: BBC
