[AP/Yonhap News Photo]
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump said that he believes North Korea will be a great economic nation one day, setting a positive tone ahead of his potential meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Trump also confirmed that U.S. officials are in North Korea to continue preparations for the summit, which, if held, would take place in Singapore June 12. "Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself," he tweeted.
The Washington Post first reported the visit of the U.S. delegation led by Amb. Sung Kim, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and former negotiator on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The State Department later confirmed that the two sides were having talks in the truce village of Panmunjom, which sits on the inter-Korean border.
"I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day," Trump wrote. "Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!"
The U.S. president has increasingly offered economic rewards in exchange for denuclearization, although the exact terms of any deal are unclear. Washington seeks a complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of the North's nuclear weapons program, but Pyongyang has rejected demands for "unilateral" denuclearization and threatened to pull out of the summit if such discussions continue.
(Yonhap)
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
