The government of South Korea has welcomed the announcement made US President Donald Trump confirming his meeting with Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12.
Seoul's reaction comes after Trump on Friday said in Washington that he was going ahead with the summit with Kim Jong-un to discuss the possible dismantling of Pyongyang's nuclear program.
"It seems as if the road to a North Korea-U.S. summit has become enhanced and expanded," Kim Eui-kyeom, a Seoul government spokesperson, said in a statement hours after Trump had made his announcement.
South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon (l) shakes hands with Ri Son-gwon from North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the country. Source: AAP
"We will excitedly but calmly look forward to the historic meeting to be held in Singapore," he added.
Eight days after cancelling the summit, Trump met Kim Yong-chol, the right-hand man of the North Korean leader, and held discussions for one and a half hours before announcing that the summit would go ahead on its original date.
Washington has said that North Korea's denuclearisation should be a complete and almost immediate process, while Pyongyang has appeared to put safeguards for the regime's survival as a pre-condition to a process of gradual dismantling, accompanied by a measured lifting of the sanctions.
A US delegation is currently in Seoul to negotiate with a North Korean group at the inter-Korean border, to finalise the summit's agenda.
The summit is set to be the first meeting between leaders of the two countries after 70 years of confrontation, which started with the Korean War (1950-53) and 25 years of failed negotiations and tensions surrounding North Korea's nuclear program.
