US team in DPRK for talks on Trump-Kim summit

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US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that a US team had arrived in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to prepare for the proposed summit between him and the DPRK's leader Kim Jong Un that Trump had pulled out of last week before reconsidering.

Officials from the US and the DPRK met at Panmunjom, a village in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that runs along the heavily armed border on the Korean Peninsula, the US State Department said.

"Our United States team has arrived in North Korea (DPRK) to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself," Trump wrote on Twitter.

A man reading a newspaper at Seoul railway station on May 25, 2018 in Seoul. /VCG Photo

"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 wrote on Twitter

In addition to those talks, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said a "pre-advance team" left for Singapore – the proposed venue for the summit – on Sunday morning to work on logistics.

Earlier on Sunday, Republic of Korea (ROK) President Moon Jae-in said he and Kim had agreed during a surprise meeting on Saturday that the DPRK-US summit must be held.

Who are on the US team?

The weekend talks were the latest twist in a week of diplomatic ups and downs over the prospects for an unprecedented DPRK-US summit, and the strongest sign yet that the two Koreas' leaders are trying to keep the meeting on track.

Sung Kim /AFP file photo

Sung Kim, the former US ambassador to Seoul, is leading the American delegation to meet DPRK officials at the border, and Pentagon official Randall Schriver was part of the US team, a US official told reporters.

The team, which also included Allison Hooker, the Korea issue expert on the White House National Security Council, met Choe Son Hui, the DPRK's Vice Foreign Minister, the Washington Post reported.

The Post also said the talks at the border will continue on Monday and Tuesday at Tongilgak, the DPRK's building in Panmunjom.

Are Kim, Trump on same page about 'denuclearization'?

In their meeting on Saturday, Kim reaffirmed that he is committed to the "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and to a planned summit with Trump, Moon told reporters in Seoul.

ROK President Moon Jae-in and DPRK leader Kim Jong Un hold their second summit at the north side of the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), May 26, 2018. /VCG Photo

But Moon acknowledged Pyongyang and Washington may have differing expectations of what denuclearization 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 Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang has rejected unilateral disarmament and has always couched its language in terms of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

In previous failed talks, Pyongyang said it could consider giving up its arsenal if Washington removed its troops from the South and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from the ROK and Japan.

The mistrust

American officials are skeptical that Kim will ever fully abandon his nuclear arsenal. Moon said the DPRK was not convinced it could trust security guarantees from the United States.

ROK President Moon Jae-in takes questions from journalists during a press conference at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, May 27, 2018. /VCG Photo

"However, during the US-South Korea (ROK) summit, President Trump clearly emphasized that we may see not only the end of hostile relations but also economic cooperation if North Korea (DPRK) denuclearizes," Moon said.

Moon met Trump in Washington on Tuesday in an effort to keep the DPRK-US summit on track.

After the meeting, Seoul said it is discussing a possible non-aggression pledge and the start of peace treaty talks with Pyongyang as a way of addressing its security concerns before the DPRK-US meeting.

A US Marine Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV) from 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan, moves position during the US-ROK Marines joint landing operation at Pohang seashore, March 29, 2012. /VCG Photo

Trump on Thursday scrapped the summit after repeated threats by the DPRK to pull out over what it saw as confrontational remarks by US officials demanding unilateral disarmament.

On May 16, the DPRK criticized US National Security Adviser John Bolton, who had called for Pyongyang to quickly give up its nuclear arsenal in a deal that would mirror Libya's abandonment of its program for weapons of mass destruction.

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."

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters