US team visit raises expectations of a Trump-Kim summit

A United States team was in North Korea to plan a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to President Donald Trump, raising expectations that the on-off-on meeting would indeed take place.

Both the State Department and South Korea's Foreign Ministry said that the American and North Korean officials have been engaged in talks at the Korean village of Panmunjom, which straddles the border inside the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ. The border can be crossed simply by stepping across a painted line, but moving beyond several footsteps into the North at Panmunjom would be rare for US officials.

Trump withdrew from a planned June 12 Singapore summit with Kim last Thursday but quickly announced that it could still happen. His tweet on Sunday afternoon, which offered praise for the longtime US adversary, was the latest signal that his concerns about the North's stance towards the summit had been allayed.

"Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the summit between Kim Jong Un and myself," he tweeted Sunday. "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!"

South Korean President Moon Jae-in gave details about his surprise meeting on Saturday with Kim in Panmunjom, saying that Kim had committed to sitting down with Trump and to a "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula".

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tapped veteran American diplomat Sung Kim, the US ambassador to the Philippines, to handle pre-summit negotiations. On a separate but complementary track was the CIA team Pompeo set up last year when he headed the spy agency. And on a third track was a White House logistical group sent to Singapore on Sunday to prepare in case the summit takes place. It was led by Joe Hagin, White House deputy chief of staff for operations.

AP