SEOUL/WASHINGTON • US President Donald Trump will visit South Korea this weekend after an exchange of letters with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un boosted hopes for talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
Mr Trump is set to arrive in Seoul for a two-day visit on Saturday, and will meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Sunday, following a summit of Group of 20 (G-20) leaders in Japan, Mr Moon's spokesman Ko Min-jung said.
The announcement comes hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hoped a letter Mr Trump sent to Mr Kim could pave the way for a revival of stalled nuclear talks.
Mr Trump and Mr Moon would have "in-depth discussions on ways to work together to foster lasting peace through the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, while strengthening the two countries' alliance", Ms Ko told a news briefing yesterday.
Mr Pompeo, who spoke of Mr Trump's letter to Mr Kim before departing from Washington for the Middle East, said the United States was ready to resume talks with North Korea immediately.
"I'm hopeful that this will provide a good foundation for us to begin... these important discussions with the North Koreans," Mr Pompeo told reporters.
Mr Trump is considering a visit to the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, a South Korean official said. Mr Trump wanted to go there during a 2017 trip to South Korea but heavy fog prevented it.
Mr Kim and Mr Moon held their historic first summit in the DMZ last year, so a visit by Mr Trump to the border between the two Koreas this weekend could spark speculation of a meeting with Mr Kim there.
Another official in the South Korean presidential office said she was not aware of any plan for Mr Trump to meet Mr Kim.
The two leaders held their first, ground-breaking summit in Singapore in June last year, agreeing to establish new relations and work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
But a second summit in Vietnam in February collapsed when the two sides were unable to bridge differences between US demands for denuclearisation and North Korean demands for sanctions relief.
With talks stalled, tension mounted last month when the North test-fired a series of short-range ballistic missiles, though Mr Trump and South Korea both played down the tests.
On June 11, Mr Trump said he had received a very warm, "beautiful" letter from Mr Kim, adding that he thought something positive would happen.
North Korea's state news agency KCNA said on Sunday that Mr Kim had received a letter from Mr Trump, which the North Korean leader described as being "of excellent content", but did not disclose any details.
KCNA said Mr Kim "would seriously contemplate the interesting content".
Mr Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asian Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, said Mr Trump may have proposed a new round of working-level talks but a major breakthrough was not likely for now.
"North Korea has to show what the final state of denuclearisation would look like and what road map it has towards that end, but it's not desirable to reopen talks just to manage the situation after recent weapons tests," Mr Shin said.
A US official said last Wednesday that the US had no pre-conditions for talks, but progress would require meaningful and verifiable North Korean steps to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.
Mr Pompeo did not discuss the contents of Mr Trump's letter, but said the US had been working to lay foundations for discussions since the Hanoi summit was abruptly ended by Mr Trump.
"I think we're in a better place," Mr Pompeo said.
Asked if working-level discussions would begin soon, he said: "I think the remarks you saw out of North Korea this morning suggest that may well be a very good possibility. We're ready to go, we're literally prepared to go at a moment's notice if the North Koreans indicate that they're prepared for those discussions."
Mr Pompeo will join Mr Trump at the G-20 summit and accompany him to Seoul, after stops in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to consult the US allies on growing tension with Iran.
