SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump said on Sunday a US team had arrived in North Korea to prepare for a proposed summit between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which Trump pulled out of last week before reconsidering.
Earlier, the US State Department said US and North Korean officials had met at Panmunjom, a village in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that runs along the heavily armed border between North and South Korea.
“Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself,” Trump wrote on Twitter, in Washington’s first confirmation that US officials had entered North Korea for the talks.
“I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!” Trump added.
In addition to those talks, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said a “pre-advance team” left for Singapore – where the summit has been expected to take place – on Sunday morning to work on logistics.
Earlier on Sunday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he and North Korea’s Kim had agreed during a surprise meeting on Saturday that the North Korea-US summit must be held.
The weekend talks were the latest twist in a week of diplomatic ups and downs over the prospects for an unprecedented US-North Korea summit, and the strongest sign yet that the two Koreas’ leaders are trying to keep the meeting on track.
