News / Politics

US officials: N Korea ready to discuss denuclearization

Monday, 09 April 2018 12:38 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 09 April 2018 5:02 AM ]

A picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 2, 2018 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (R) speaking to South Korean musicians after a rare concert by South Korean musicians at the 1,500-seat East Pyongyang Grand Theatre in Pyongyang.

US officials claim North Korea has told the Trump administration that that they are willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meets US President Donald Trump.

A US official told Reuters that officials from the two countries have held secret contacts recently, in which Pyongyang directly delivered the message of its willingness to hold the summit on denuclearization.

Reuters said the US official declined to say exactly when and how the US-North Korea communications had taken place but said the two sides had held multiple direct contacts.

“The US has confirmed that Kim Jong Un is willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula‎,” said a second US official according to the news agency

The Wall Street Journal also reported the news, quoting a “Trump administration official” it declined to name.

In a visit to the White House last month, South Korean envoys presented Kim’s invitation to meet with Trump -- who quickly agreed with the invitation.

However Pyongyang has been publicly silent since then about the summit, even as Kim visited Beijing earlier this month in his first visit outside North Korea since assuming control of the country after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in 2011.

PressTV-'Trump to meet North Korea leader by May'

Trump has agreed to meet the North Korean leader by May, a South Korean official said Thursday.

Questions remain about how North Korea would define denuclearization, which Washington sees as Pyongyang abandoning its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea has said over the years that it could consider giving up its nuclear arsenal if the US removed its troops from South Korea and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan.

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