Update: confirming that Trump's "dear Kim" letter was just a negotiating ploy, the WaPo reports that the US exploratory team is back in North Korea as Reuters previewed yesterday:
- U.S. OFFICIALS CROSS INTO NORTH KOREA FOR SUMMIT PREPARATION TALKS DESPITE UNCERTAINTY SURROUNDING TRUMP-KIM MEETING - WASHINGTON POST
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One day after Saturday's "surprise" second summit between the leaders of North and South Korea, President Moon Jae-in said on Sunday that his Northern counterpart Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his commitment to “complete” denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and to a planned meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Chairman Kim clearly appealed once again that his intent to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula is firm,” Moon said quoted by Reuters.
Moon Jae-in with Kim Jong Un on Saturday. Source: Blue House
The statement came one day after Moon and Kim agreed that the possible North Korea-U.S. summit must be held: “Chairman Kim and I have agreed that the June 12 summit should be held successfully, and that our quest for the Korean peninsula’s denuclearization and a perpetual peace regime should not be halted,” Moon said.
Moon also explained that he held Saturday’s impromptu summit - the second between the two sides in a month - after Kim asked for a meeting “without any formality”.
“A meeting was held because officials of both countries thought that meeting face-to-face would be better than a phone call,” Moon said, noting that the summit was in line with previous agreements for the two leaders to meet more often.
The meeting was the latest dramatic turn in a week of diplomatic ups and downs surrounding the prospects for an unprecedented summit between the United States and North Korea, and the strongest sign yet that the two Korean leaders are trying to keep the on-again off-again meeting on track.
North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, said the Korean leaders had agreed to “high-level” talks between the two countries on June 1. “They shared the opinion that they would meet frequently in the future to make dialogue brisk and pool wisdom and efforts,” KCNA said. KCNA also said that Kim expressed “his fixed will” on the possibility of meeting Trump as previously planned; the agency also said the two leaders had reached a “satisfactory consensus” and expressed “their stand to make joint efforts for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula”.
Meanwhile, on Saturday night President Trump also indicated he too was effectively ready to proceed with the summit, telling reporters that direct talks with North Korea are talking place and meetings were taking place "as we speak" in an unidentified location to push ahead with the summit which Trump unexpectedly canceled last week due to "open hostility" from North Korea. And just to make sure that the meeting takes place as previously scheduled,...