South Korea's President Moon Jae-in says there could be more impromptu talks and summits with North Korea's Kim Jong-un, as US officials prepare for a historic meeting between President Donald Trump and Kim.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Moon and Kim held a surprise meeting on Saturday at the border village of Panmunjom, during which they agreed that a North Korea-US summit must be held.
"What's more important than anything from the latest inter-Korean summit was that the leaders easily got in contact, easily made an appointment and easily met to discuss urgent matters, without complicated procedures and formalities, just like a casual meeting," Moon told a meeting with senior secretaries.
Trump last week pulled out of the meeting with Kim, planned for June 12 in Singapore, before announcing he had reconsidered and American and North Korean officials were meeting to work out details.
On Sunday, the US State Department said US and North Korean officials had met at Panmunjom, a village in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that runs along the heavily armed border between North and South Korea.
A "pre-advance" team of US officials was also travelling to Singapore to meet with North Koreans there, the White House said.
A US official told Reuters that Sung Kim, the former US ambassador to South Korea, was leading the American delegation to meet North Korean officials at the border.
Pentagon official Randall Schriver was also part of the US team along with Allison Hooker, the Korea expert on the White House National Security Council.
"Sending such an experienced and professional team signals that the Trump administration is getting serious about the specifics of an agreement," said former US deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia, Abraham Denmark.
Still, with only a few weeks left until the scheduled summit, such talks are unlikely to reconcile the differing positions over Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal, he said.
In remarks on Sunday, Moon acknowledged Pyongyang and Washington may have differing expectations of what denuclearisation means and he urged both sides to hold working-level talks to resolve their differences.
The United States has demanded the "complete, verifiable, and irreversible" dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang has rejected unilateral disarmament and has always couched its language in terms of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
In previous, failed talks, North Korea said it could consider giving up its arsenal if Washington removed its troops from South Korea and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan.
Australian Associated Press
