INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The summit between Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump would take place on June 12 in Singapore(File)SEOUL/WASHINGTON:
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.North Korea has faced years of economic
sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs since it conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.The United States has struggled to slow
the isolated country's weapons programs, which have become a security priority for Washington given Pyongyang's promise to develop a
nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.A US official told Reuters that Sung Kim, the former US ambassador to South Korea,
would lead an American delegation to meet North Korean officials at the border
Pentagon official Randall Schriver was part of the US team, the official said.The Washington Post first reported that the team, which also
included Allison Hooker, the Korea expert on the White House National Security Council, met with Choe Son Hui, the North Korean vice foreign
minister.The Post said the talks at the border would continue on Monday and Tuesday at Tongilgak, the North's building in Panmunjom, where
the truce suspending the 1950-53 Korean War was signed.In their meeting on Saturday, Kim reaffirmed his commitment to "complete"
denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and to a planned summit with Trump, Moon told reporters in Seoul."Chairman Kim and I have agreed
that the June 12 summit should be held successfully, and that our quest for the Korean Peninsula's denuclearisation and a perpetual peace
regime should not be halted," Moon said.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. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North
Korea's Kim Jong-Un had agreed during a surprise meeting on Saturday that the North Korea-US summit must be held (File)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.North Korea has tested dozens of missiles of various types
in the past two years, including one launch of its largest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile, which is theoretically capable of
hitting anywhere in the United States, on Nov
29.MISTRUST ON BOTH SIDESAmerican officials are skeptical that Kim will ever fully abandon his nuclear arsenal
Moon said North Korea was not convinced it could trust security guarantees from the United States."However, during the US-South Korea
summit, President Trump clearly emphasized that we may see not only the end of hostile relations but also economic cooperation if North
Korea denuclearises," Moon said.Moon met Trump in Washington on Tuesday in an effort to keep the US-North Korea summit on track.A senior
South Korean official said later the two Koreas were discussing a possible non-aggression pledge and the start of peace treaty talks as a
way of addressing Pyongyang's security concerns before US-North Korean negotiations.A statement from North Korea's state news agency, KCNA,
said Kim expressed "his fixed will" on the possibility of meeting Trump as previously planned.Trump on Thursday scrapped the summit after
repeated threats by North Korea to pull out over what it saw as confrontational remarks by US officials demanding unilateral disarmament.On
May 16, North Korea criticized US national security adviser John Bolton, who had called for North Korea to quickly give up its nuclear
arsenal in a deal that would mirror Libya's abandonment of its program for weapons of mass destruction.Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was
deposed and killed by NATO-backed militants in 2011 after halting his nascent nuclear program.Trump dismissed the so-called Libya model
Sanders, his spokeswoman, told Fox News on May 15: "This is the President Trump model
He's going to run this the way he sees fit."Kim had requested a meeting with Moon to clarify what the "Trump model" meant, Yonhap news
agency of South Korea reported, citing an unidentified foreign affairs source.Kim and Trump's initial decision to meet followed months of
war threats and insults between the leaders over the North's nuclear program.Trump said on Saturday he was still looking at a June 12 summit
in Singapore and that talks were going well.© Thomson Reuters 2018(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by
TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
