North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is to meet US President Donald Trump by May, a top South Korean security official announced Thursday in Washington, in an unprecedented development.

Chung Eui Yong, who led a South Korean delegation to meet Kim in Pyongyang earlier this week, said the North Korean leader had “expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible.”

Following a briefing on Kim’s offer on Thursday, Trump said he would meet Kim Jong Un by May to achieve permanent denuclearization, Chung told reporters.

If the meeting takes place, it will be the first time that a US president has met with a leader of the reclusive nation.

Chung also said the North Korean leader had agreed to refrain from further nuclear and ballistic missile tests and was committed to the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula.

Kim also understands that the routine joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and the United States must continue, Chung said. 

The announcements could be a breakthrough in the decades-long effort to restore peace in the region and follow a flurry of diplomacy which centred around North Korea’s attendance of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang last month.

The White House later confirmed that Trump had accepted Kim’s invitation to meet “at a place and time to be determined.”

However, it emphasized that “in the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain.”
Trump said in a tweet that “great progress” was being made.

South Korean President Moon Jae described the potential meeting as a “historic milestone” for peace, local media reported Friday. “The May meeting will be recorded as a historic milestone that realized peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Moon said in a statement read out by his spokesman, according to the Yonhap news agency.
DPA, 09th MARCH, 2018