U.S. President Donald Trump said he planned to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next month or in early June and hoped the discussions would ultimately lead to an end of the North’s nuclear weapons program. “Hopefully, it’ll be a relationship that’s much different than it’s been for many, many years” he said.
According to a U.S. official North Korea also has told the United States it is prepared to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula when Kim meets Trump. The official said U.S. and North Korean officials have held secret contacts recently in which Pyongyang directly confirmed its willingness to hold the unprecedented summit. The communications have involved State Department officials talking to North Korea, apparently through its United Nations mission, and intelligence officers from both sides using a separate back channel, the official said.
