S. Korean leader and North's Kim hold summit talks

Yahoo – AFP, Park Chan-kyong, September 18, 2018

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) came to Pyongyang's international airport
to welcome South Korean President Moon Jae-in (C) (AFP Photo)

Seoul (AFP) - South Korea's president and the North's leader Kim Jong Un drove together through the streets of Pyongyang Tuesday past thousands of cheering citizens before opening a summit where Moon Jae-in will seek to reboot stalled denuclearisation talks between his hosts and the United States.

Kim and Moon embraced at Pyongyang's international airport -- where the North Korean leader had supervised missile launches last year as tensions mounted.

The North's unique brand of choreographed mass adulation was on full display as hundreds of people waved North Korean flags and another depicting an undivided peninsula -- while the South's own emblem was only visible on Moon's Boeing 747 aircraft.

Thousands of people, holding bouquets and chanting in unison "Reunification of the country!", lined the streets as Kim and Moon rode through the city in an open-topped vehicle, passing the Kumsusan Palace where Kim's predecessors -- his father and grandfather -- lie in state.

"I am acutely aware of the weight that we bear," Moon told Kim as they opened two hours of formal talks at the headquarters of the ruling Workers' Party, adding that he felt a "heavy responsibility".

At a banquet after the first day of the summit, Moon said the "complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of peace" were priorities.

The South Korean leader said there would be challenges ahead but that he and Kim had "trust and friendship".

Graphic showing previous summits between North and South Korea 

(AFP Photo/John SAEKI)

Kim hailed his relationship with Moon, and said the pair would discuss "various issues ... in a frank and open-minded manner".

The North Korean leader declared his backing for the denuclearisation of the peninsula at his Singapore summit with US President Donald Trump in June.

But no details were agreed and Washington and Pyongyang have since sparred over what that means and how it will be achieved.

The US is pressing for the North's "final, fully verified denuclearisation", while Pyongyang wants a formal declaration that the 1950-53 Korean War is over and has condemned "gangster-like" demands for it to give up its weapons unilaterally.

A commentary in the Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the North's ruling party, repeated the criticism Tuesday, saying Washington was "totally to blame" for the deadlock. "The US is stubbornly insisting on the theory of 'dismantlement of nukes first'," it added.

Moon will hold another round of formal talks with Kim on Wednesday, as he urges the North Korean leader to make substantive steps towards disarmament that he can present to Trump.

Moon is due to meet Trump later this month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

"I wish this will be a summit that produces abundant results as a gift to the 80 million people of this nation for Chuseok," Moon said, referring to Monday's traditional holiday.

South Korea's Moon (R) has been instrumental in brokering the diplomatic thaw

 that saw a historic summit between Kim Jong Un (L) and US President Donald 

Trump in Singapore in June, where Kim backed denuclearisation of the Korean 

peninsula (AFP Photo)

'Rosy headlines'

The dovish South Korean president is looking to tie the inter-Korean process and the US-Northern talks closer together to reduce the threat of a devastating conflict on the peninsula.

At the same time Kim will look to secure closer inter-Korean co-operation as Seoul and Washington move at increasingly different speeds in their approaches to Pyongyang.

Analysts played down expectations.

The meeting "will probably generate rosy headlines but do little to accelerate efforts to denuclearise North Korea", Eurasia Group said in a note.

Kim would focus on "areas that promise economic benefits for the North", it added.

"Progressives inside and outside Moon's government will have strong incentives to inflate the summit's accomplishments, initially obscuring what will likely be a lack of major deliverables."

There have been many previous rounds of negotiations with the North, but deals have subsequently fallen apart -- Wednesday will mark 13 years to the day since Pyongyang agreed to abandon all of its nuclear weapons and return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

It has since carried out six nuclear tests and launched intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching anywhere on the US mainland.

The North's unique brand of choreographed mass adulation was on full display as 

hundreds of people on the tarmac waved North Korean flags and unification ones 

depicting an undivided peninsula (AFP Photo)

'First, second, third'

Moon's own parents fled the North during the Korean War that left the peninsula divided and technically in a state of conflict.

His three-day visit is the first by a South Korean president to Pyongyang in a decade. It is also the two leaders' third meeting this year.

Moon -- whose poll ratings have fallen in the face of economic difficulties -- was accompanied by business tycoons including Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong and the vice chairman of Hyundai Motor.

Moon has been pushing inter-Korean engagement, which is complicated by international sanctions against the North. South Korean media have urged caution, calling for substantial progress towards denuclearisation first.

"Quite a number of people are now fed up with the surprise events between the leaders," the conservative Chosun Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial Tuesday.

"President Moon must head to Pyongyang with the resolve that the first, second, third agenda of this summit is denuclearisation."

#UPDATE Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in visit the spiritual birthplace of the Korean nation for a show of unity after their North-South summit gave new momentum to Pyongyang's negotiations with Washington https://t.co/1d72FjLXF2

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 20, 2018

Standing in front of the flags of their two countries, Donald Trump and
Kim Jong Un made history in Singapore (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

Related Articles:

Trump, Kim hail historic summit; questions over way forward

Science & Spiritually Conference 2018, BC – Canada (4), June 16-17, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Predictions - Text version)

".. A few days ago, there was a handshake and that handshake was with the President of the United States and the leader of North Korea. This handshake was something that was far from expected a few months ago. In fact, it's beyond all odds - all odds - that this would ever take place! I want to tell you about this, because you are going to start to understand the mechanics of prediction. The reason? I told you years ago about the potential of the handshake.

"I am a channeller," my partner says. "I channel Kryon," my partner says. But what my partner has really learned to do is to put himself away and dip into the field with purity. This allows him to see differently and contact that who is Kryon, a friend in the field, and then to report to you what's perceived there. Predictions are not magic. Predictions are not future fortune-telling. You can't do that, dear ones; no one can do that. The reason? Because Human nature has free choice. Free choice creates trillions of free decisions daily. There is no "known" future. But there are a vast number of strong potentials based on what free choice is doing at the moment.

I want to take you back to March 2012 in Dallas, Texas. The channellings that I refer to now are documented, printed, available, and ready for you to read and find. [on this very web page] My partner documents them all and places them on his website. Some of you already know that I spoke about two strong potentials in that channeling, which would now seem to be predictions (since they happened). But they weren't. These things were potentials based upon that which was already happening in the field.

The first item: I told you that you would have a new pope soon. Thirteen months later, the planet received one. We told you that new pope would be a wild card in that he would come with unexpected energies. The old pope didn't even die, if you noticed. In fact, he's still with you! Instead, something happened that was beyond expectation, and you heard it from a chair just like the one I'm in now. That's not predicting, dear ones, because that was in the field. It was already something in progress with a potential. Did you hear that? In progress with a potential.

The second thing I told you about was this: There's a 50% chance that the new leader of North Korea, the son, would not follow in the footsteps of his father. I told you there was a 50% chance of this. Then I started itemizing the reasoning why this might make sense, especially to the Korean leader. I then told you it might take a long time if it manifested at all. I told you the problems would be within the old advisors for his father's family. He had to tread slowly and lightly to do something against all odds. This will all come out someday because of the handshake.

Here was the potential or the prediction of what might happen: Those who had the machine guns in the DM zone would drop them, because this North Korean leader would unify the two Koreas. There would be no nuclear weapons in his land and there would be the beginning of abundance for his people. His people and the world would then give him something he had always wanted and was imbued with from birth - the desire for accolades and more accolades. Like his father before him, he was the premier egotist, and this would be the unexpected way to create a world at his feet. That's what I said. Then I said, "Watch for it, but don't be anxious." I talked about that in 2013, and five more times since then. In August 2017, I itemized my advice for him, point by point. The advice that I gave followed the potentials that were there and those were the very points in the handshake this week in June of 2018.

Now, you tell me what happened. "Kryon, you're going to be famous because you predicted these things!" Dear ones, all I did was look into a field that is being shown to you today [by the scientists at the conference]. And all I did was to show you the potentials that were already there. In other words, he was thinking about these things and talking to others behind the scenes about them. No matter what his advisors told him right up to the brink of sending his missiles, he was always thinking that there might be another way that would gain him ultimate fame. Dear ones, this has been in progress since his father died! Therefore, it was in the field, but not a given, dear ones - a potential.

Next, I want to show you the bias of humanity at this time, something I have spoken of many times. This potential of the handshake is amazing, and it has started to be manifested. What should the reaction be to something that deflects the potential of war, or saves thousands lives? Instead of joy or amazement or celebration, Humans go for the reverse: It can't happen. It's a trick. It's a bad deal.

I want you to start reading the reactions of the press. I want you to read the reactions even from the South Koreans. They said, "Well, we know North Koreans, and that's never going to happen. We know who they are, and we know their nature. Because in the past, they never performed what they said they would. So it's a joke." That is a quote from a South Korean. "It's a joke."

What happened to this comment? "Isn't this a beautiful potential? Look at this amazing thing - against all odds!" Now, your free press, the reporting segment of our culture, has decided not only to report it, but to let you know it's probably not going to happen! They say: "Nay. Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll see. We expect the worse." And this continues and continues, and all it shows you is the monstrous bias of the dark side that wants to pull anything good back to what the past gave to you. ..."

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Dallas Texas, Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

Trump praises Kim over return of war dead amid summit skepticism

Yahoo – AFP, Francesco FONTEMAGGI, 27 July 2018

US President Donald Trump praised North Korea's Kim Jong Un for returning
the remains of more than 50 US servicemen killed during the Korean War

Amid skepticism over his rapprochement with Kim Jong Un, US President Donald Trump praised the North Korean leader on Friday for returning remains believed to be those of more than 50 US servicemen.

Trump pointed to the handover of 55 boxes said to hold the remains of US troops killed during the Korean War as evidence that his overtures to the North Korean strongman were bearing fruit.

"I want to thank Chairman Kim for keeping his word," Trump said during an appearance at the White House after tweeting that it was a "great moment for so many families."

Trump has hailed his June summit with Kim in Singapore as effectively ending the North Korean nuclear threat.

But it contained only a vague commitment on Pyongyang's part to work towards the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula" -- a long way from the complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament demanded by Washington.

With Trump facing criticism that concrete post-summit progress was scant, he welcomed the repatriation of the remains -- which came on the 65th anniversary of the end of the war -- as evidence that the talks were a success.

"I want to thank Chairman Kim in front of the media for fulfilling a promise that he made to me," he said.

The White House said it was 'encouraged' by the return of the remains and 

the 'momentum for positive change'

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the administration was "encouraged by North Korea's actions and the momentum for positive change."

More than 35,000 Americans were killed during the 1950-53 war and 7,700 are still listed as missing in action -- most of them in North Korea.

A US military C-17 cargo plane carrying the purported remains of the more than 50 US servicemen landed at a US air base in South Korea on Thursday.

A formal repatriation ceremony is to be held in Hawaii on August 1, attended by Vice President Mike Pence. The remains will then be analyzed there.

North Korea has previously been accused -- most notably by Japan -- of faking the remains of foreign citizens and using them as a bargaining chip.

'Step in the right direction'

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday described the repatriation as setting a "positive tone for other things, more important things in terms of international diplomacy.

"This humanitarian act, obviously, is a step in the right direction," Mattis said.

A chaplain performs a blessing aboard a US military aircraft over the 55 

cases of remains returned by North Korea to the United States

He added that the remains of French and Australian soldiers who fought alongside the Americans could be found in the boxes handed over by Pyongyang.

"You noticed that there was a UN blue flag on each of the boxes," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.

"We don't know who's in those boxes."

Michael Fuchs, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said "the return of remains is important, and can be viewed as a potential confidence building measure."

But Fuchs, a former US deputy assistant secretary for East Asia, added on Twitter that North Korea may be "picking off low hanging fruit to make it seem like they are making concessions in the overall negotiations."

Fuchs noted reports that Pyongyang has started dismantling a facility seen as a testing ground for intercontinental ballistic missiles -- a move welcomed earlier this week by Trump.

"The destruction of the nuke test site was not observed by inspectors, so the details can't be verified -- same goes for the dismantling of the engine test site," Fuchs said. "And these steps are reversible. And none touch on the core issue - NK nukes."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was grilled about North Korea's sincerity by members of the US Senate during testimony this week.

More than 35,000 Americans were killed on the Korean Peninsula during the war

He acknowledged North Korea was continuing to produce nuclear fissile material but insisted that "progress is happening" and said Trump remains "upbeat about the prospects of North Korean denuclearization."

Asked if the goal was for this to be achieved by the end of Trump's first term in office, Pompeo replied "yes," and added: "More quickly if possible."

Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, was among those who remained skeptical.

"I am afraid that at this point the United States -- the Trump administration -- is being taken for a ride," Markey said.

US President Donald Trump praised North Korea's Kim Jong Un for returning the remains of more than 50 US servicemen killed during the Korean War

The White House said it was 'encouraged' by the return of the remains and the 'momentum for positive change'

A chaplain performs a blessing aboard a US military aircraft over the 55 cases of remains returned by North Korea to the United States

More than 35,000 Americans were killed on the Korean Peninsula during the war.

Pompeo: US will help make NKorea rich if it disarms

Yahoo – AFP, May 11, 2018

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has met twice with North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un in the run-up to US President Donald Trump's summit with Kim, set for
June 12 (AFP Photo/MANDEL NGAN)

Washington (AFP) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that if North Korea agrees to surrender its nuclear arsenal, Washington will work with Pyongyang to rebuild its tiny economy.

"If North Korea takes bold action to quickly denuclearize, the United States is prepared to work with North Korea to achieve prosperity on par with our South Korean friends," he said.

Pompeo was speaking after talks with his South Korean opposite number Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha to prepare for a historic June 12 summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Some observers are concerned that South Korea's desire to build peaceful ties with the North may distance it over time from the US policy of seeking nuclear disarmament at any cost.

But both Kang and Pompeo insisted that they agreed on the need for the "total, complete, permanent and verifiable" denuclearization of the divided peninsula.

And Pompeo said the United States would remain on board to help develop the North's economy, which has been devastated by its own mismanagement and crippling international sanctions.

Pompeo has had two recent meetings with Kim to prepare for the summit and, last weekend, to negotiate the release of three Korean-Americans held in the North's jails.

He said he had had good conversations with Kim, who he found to be a focused and rational interlocutor.

"We had good conversations, conversations that involve deep complex problems, challenges, strategic decisions that chairman Kim has before him," Pompeo said.

The pair, he said, talked "about how it is he wishes to proceed and if he's prepared, in exchange for the assurances that we're ready to provide him, if he is prepared to fully denuclearize.

"We'll require a robust verification program, one that we would undertake with partners around the world which would achieve that outcome," he warned.

But he added: "I'm confident that we have a shared understanding of the outcome that the leaders want -- certainly President Trump and chairman Kim, but I think president Moon as well."

"I think that we have a shared vision for what we hope. I think there's a complete agreement about what the ultimate objectives are," he said.

VIDEO US Secretary of State Pompeo says there is "complete agreement about what the ultimate objectives are" in terms of the much-anticipated summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/eftumE7qik

— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 12, 2018

Related Article:

North Korea 'taking measures' to dismantle nuclear site: KCNA

North, South Korea seek peace, denuclearisation in historic summit

Yahoo  - AFP, Sunghee Hwang,  April 27, 2018

The leaders of the two Koreas were in a jubilant mood after the successful
summit (AFP Photo/Korea Summit Press Pool)

The leaders of North and South Korea agreed on Friday to pursue a permanent peace treaty and the complete denuclearisation of their divided peninsula at a historic summit laden with symbolism.

The North's leader Kim Jong Un and the South's President Moon Jae-in embraced after signing what they called the Panmunjom Declaration, following a day that began with an emotional handshake over the Military Demarcation Line that splits their countries.

The pair issued a statement confirming their "common goal of realising, through complete denuclearisation, a nuclear-free Korean peninsula".

They agreed they would seek a permanent end to the Korean War this year, 65 years after hostilities ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Moon would visit Pyongyang in "the fall", the two leaders said, pledging to hold "regular meetings and direct telephone conversations".

But Kim did not mention denuclearisation and analysts warned that while the summit was a good first step, similar promises had been made before and much remained to be done to resolve the issue of the North's atomic arsenal.

The leaders of the two Koreas were in a jubilant mood after the 

successful summit (AFP Photo/Laurence CHU)

In coming weeks, Kim is due to hold a much-anticipated meeting with US President Donald Trump -- who has demanded Pyongyang give up its weapons -- that will be crucial in shaping progress.

Trump hailed the Korea summit as historic, but warned "only time will tell".

He told reporters he would not be "played" by the North's leader at their upcoming meeting, with "two countries" now in the running to host the summit.

Trump also implicitly claimed credit for the Korean meeting, tweeting: "KOREAN WAR TO END! The United States, and all of its GREAT people, should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea!"

But he also offered a nod to his "good friend", Chinese President Xi Jinping, who had provided "great help".

'Filled with emotion'

The Panmunjom Declaration capped an extraordinary day, unthinkable only months ago as the nuclear-armed North carried out a series of missile launches and its sixth atomic blast.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in held 

a warm embrace near the end of their historic summit (AFP Photo/Korea Summit 

Press Pool)

Kim and Trump had traded personal insults and threats of war, sending tensions soaring before Moon seized on the Winter Olympics to broker dialogue, beginning a dizzying whirl of diplomacy that led to Friday's meeting in the Demilitarized Zone.

Kim said he was "filled with emotion" after stepping over the concrete blocks that mark the border, making him the first Northern leader to set foot in the South since the Korean War ceasefire in 1953.

At his impromptu invitation, the two men briefly crossed hand-in-hand into the North before beginning the summit, only the third of its kind.

During another symbolic gesture, the two men took part in the ceremonial planting of a pine tree.

It was a far cry from the last tree-related operation Moon was on duty for in the DMZ -- a monumental show of force after North Korean soldiers killed two US officers trying to prune a poplar in 1976, when he was a special forces soldier.

'Heart-wrenching division'

The truce village of Panmunjom was the "symbol of heart-wrenching division", Kim said, but if it became "a symbol of peace, the North and South that have one blood, one language, one history and one culture, will return to becoming one".

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un walks with President Moon Jae-in after 

crossing into South Korea for an official summit at Peace House (AFP Photo/

Korea Summit Press Pool)

He pledged the two Koreas would ensure they did not "repeat the unfortunate history in which past inter-Korea agreements... fizzled out after beginning".

In the declaration, the two sides said they would seek meetings this year with the US and possibly China -- both parties to the 1953 ceasefire -- "with a view to declaring an end to the war, turning the armistice into a peace treaty, and establishing a permanent and solid peace regime".

But agreeing a treaty to formally close the conflict will be complicated -- both Seoul and Pyongyang claim sovereignty over the whole Korean peninsula.

The two previous Korean summits in 2000 and 2007, both in Pyongyang, also ended with displays of affection and similar pledges, but the agreements ultimately came to naught.

'First step'

Moon welcomed the North's announcement of a moratorium on nuclear testing and long-range missile launches as "very significant", calling it "an important step towards complete denuclearisation".

But how much progress was made on the nuclear issue remained unclear.

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in (2nd R) said the North's moratorium on
nuclear and long-range missile tests is "very significant" (AFP Photo/Korea
Summit Press Pool)

Pyongyang has always insisted it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against a US invasion, and is demanding still unspecified security guarantees to discuss its arsenal, while Washington is pressing it to give up its weapons in a complete, verifiable and irreversible way.

Affirming a commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula was "not new", said MIT political science professor Vipin Narang, "historic summit notwithstanding".

But he added: "Reaffirming it is better than not reaffirming it."

Paul Haenle of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing said it was "really just the first step in broader diplomatic efforts".

"Similar to a game of chess, this move opens up a series of possible developments but in many ways, the hard work really begins now."

After an early dispatch saying Kim was heading for the summit, the North's state media offered no further coverage of events, even as the leaders' handshake was beamed around the world.

But at a farewell ceremony, the two men watched images of their landmark encounter beamed onto the summit venue in a sound-and-light show, standing hand-in-hand for several minutes.

VIDEO: The inter-Korean summit has thrown up many memorable images, including those that highlight a certain chemistry between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the South's President Moon Jae-in pic.twitter.com/xMyGjNjuut

— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 27, 2018

Trump says 'good chance' Kim will give up nukes

Yahoo – AFP, 28 March 2018

US President Donald Trump, who has agreed to meet with Kim Jong Un, said there is
a now a good chance the North Korean leader will give up his country's nuclear weapons

US President Donald Trump, who has agreed to meet with Kim Jong Un, said Wednesday there is a now a good chance the North Korean leader will give up his country's nuclear weapons.

"For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility," Trump wrote in an early morning tweet.

"Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!," Trump added.

His comments came as Kim completed a secretive and unprecedented visit to Beijing on Wednesday as the two countries seek to repair frayed ties before Pyongyang's landmark summits with Washington and earlier with South Korea.

On his first trip abroad since taking power, Kim and his wife were greeted by an honor guard and a banquet hosted by President Xi Jinping, according to state media, which confirmed the three-day visit on Wednesday only after Kim had returned by train to North Korea.

The two men held talks at the Great Hall of the People and Kim pledged he was "committed to denuclearization" on the Korean peninsula, according to China's Xinhua news agency.

Kim also expressed willingness to hold the summits with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, it said.

Analysts said Xi likely wanted to see Kim in order to ensure North Korea does not cut a deal with Trump that hurts Chinese interests during their summit, expected to be held in May.

North Korean newscaster Ri Chun Hee announces on state TV that Kim Jong Un exchanged views with and invited Xi Jinping to North Korea during his recent trip to Beijing pic.twitter.com/6S4usSUnAL

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 28, 2018

US vows no let-up on N. Korea ahead of historic Trump-Kim summit

Yahoo – AFP, Andrew BEATTY, 9 March 2018

The White House confirmed President Donald Trump would accept the invitation
to meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un "at a place and time to be determined"

The United States vowed Friday there would be no let-up of pressure on North Korea until it takes concrete steps to end its nuclear program after Donald Trump agreed to meet Kim Jong Un in a stunning diplomatic gamble.

A day after the bombshell announcement that the US and North Korean leaders would meet before the end of May, Trump's Vice President Mike Pence said Washington's efforts to isolate Kim had been vindicated.

While there was no reaction from Kim's regime, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said news of the summit -- announced by his national security advisor on a visit to Washington -- was "like a miracle".

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the two leaders to begin talks as "soon as possible" and praised Trump's "positive aspiration" during a phone call with his US counterpart, according to state media.

China has long been North Korea's most important ally but has been on board with the program of sanctions agreed at the UN.

The announcement triggered a rise in global stock markets while world leaders voiced hope that the summit would deflate tensions that had been building dramatically in recent months.

While some observers questioned the US president's wisdom in granting Kim a long-standing wish for a summit after only agreeing a temporary halt to its nuclear tests, others said his gamble could be a game changer.

Trump has previously ridiculed Kim as "Little Rocket Man", slapping wideranging bilateral sanctions on the Pyongyang regime and also leading a drive for international sanctions through the UN.

"North Korea's desire to meet to discuss denuclearization -- while suspending all ballistic missile and nuclear testing -- is evidence that President Trump's strategy to isolate the Kim regime is working," Pence said in a statement.

Chronology of diplomatic tensions between the US and North Korea

The North Koreans "are coming to the table despite the United States making zero concessions and, in close coordination with our allies, we have consistently increased the pressure on the Kim regime.

"Our resolve is undeterred and our policy remains the same: all sanctions remain in place and the maximum pressure campaign will continue until North Korea takes concrete, permanent, and verifiable steps to end their nuclear program."

Standing in front of the White House on Thursday night, Moon's National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong announced the first ever meeting between a US president and a North Korean leader would take place by May.

Chung had recently returned from Pyongyang, where he met Kim who, he said, "expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible."

Sanctions remain

In a notably restrained tweet, Trump hailed "great progress" in the push to persuade Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons program, adding that "sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was among the world leaders to hail the announcement as a "glimmer of hope," saying North Korea's nuclear drive "has been a source of great concern for all of us."

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the UN's nuclear watchdog, voiced hope that the summit would produce "concrete progress" and a resumption of nuclear inspections which have been suspended for years.

"The IAEA is closely following the recent developments related to the nuclear program of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," the Vienna-based UN body said in a statement.

Pyongyang's long race to develop a nuclear weapon capable has proved a problem for successive US administrations.

But the alarm bells have been ringing even louder since last July when Pyongyang conducted two intercontinental ballistic missile tests, declaring that the entire United States was now within its range.

'Fire and Fury'

Trump then threatened "fire and fury" if Pyongyang continued to threaten the United States only for North Korea to carry out its sixth nuclear test while Kim derided Trump as "mentally deranged".

The United States and North Korea were foes throughout the Cold War and fought on opposite sides of a bloody war in the 1950s.

In the last two decades, they have been engaged in what is perhaps the world's most dangerous nuclear standoff, with 30,000 US military personnel stationed just over the border in the South.

On multiple occasions, Kim's father Kim Jong Il dangled the prospect of talks and denuclearization as a means of buying time, easing sanctions and dividing South Korea from its allies.

Trump agrees to historic first meeting with North Korea's Kim - a stunning development in high-stakes nuclear standoff https://t.co/x66wEpGZL9 pic.twitter.com/BNy1lga88a

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 9, 2018

Related Article:

"Quantum Patterns" - Jan 23 - 24, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

"... The Darkness Can't See Beyond Itself

I want to give you proof yet again of something unusual and very telling of the way low vibration works. Within the first channel of the year [2016], I spoke about the young North Korean leader. I'm going to do it again. I'm going to do it again as a profound example of how low consciousness cannot see above itself. That means that it can only work with what it sees and knows. As powerful, as smart, as intellectual as it thinks it is, it can't get out of its own circle.

The former leader of North Korea was a classic egotist. When he died, his son took over and could do anything he wanted. This boy had watched his father for decades and knew he would take over someday. Naturally, he inherited the attributes his father taught him of self-importance, and he also became egotistically driven to the max. When he took power, he had the choice to make changes that would allow him to be even greater than his father. He wanted something that would elevate his name and his position to the highest egotistic place imaginable. His father was the model, and now he could do anything he wanted to be even more famous. What happened is classic. He completely missed the greatest opportunity that any man has had to become the most famous and beloved person on the earth. The idea never occurred to him. Even though he had been educated in the western world, he missed it.

If he had considered the high road and included the earth instead of a restricted population of his own country, he could have been the most famous and beloved leader on Earth, all of his life. At the moment he took over, all he had to do was to think beyond his circle. He was in the unique position to be a "wild card" and do something amazing - unify North an South Korea, drop the zone of death that was between those countries, bring families together after generations, stop nuclear programs that he really never needed other than to look important and, thereby, give his people abundance, food for all and peace in his region. All of Korea would worship him and the earth would give a sigh of relief in thanks for his wisdom and courage.

He would have received standing ovations upon entering the United Nations great room and they would bow before him and give him the highest peace prizes. He would have his ego stroked and stroked and stroked and stroked and be far greater than his father had ever been. But it never occurred to him. Instead, he perpetuated the dark box he inherited, and now he presides over the lowest energy possible, representing the most dangerous renegade energy on the planet. At the expense of keeping his people poor and impoverished and creating instability in his region, he gets to be a powerful and famous person for a moment in time from a small population. He will not last long. He can't see that what he is doing has no support within the majority of the planet's population, and he will lose everything. Isn't it interesting how strong the circle is that keeps a low vibration low. All of this is beginning to change, dear ones. If you examine individual people and the way they act, you're going to see this coming. You're going to recognize it.  ..."