South Korean President Moon Jae-in (left) talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un before their meeting on May 26 in Panmunjom, North Korea. | South Korean Presidential Blue House via Getty Images Trump says North Korea has 'potential,' GOP lawmakers remain skeptical Trump and the State Department said a U.S. delegation was in talks with North Korean officials.

President Donald Trump on Sunday expressed optimism for the future of U.S.-North Korean relations as a U.S. delegation met with officials in the region, but some Republican lawmakers said they doubted Pyongyang's commitment to giving up its nuclear weapons.

"I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day," the president wrote on Twitter. "Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!"


Trump and the State Department said a U.S. delegation was in talks with North Korean officials, continuing planning for a summit initially set for June 12 in Singapore, which Trump said earlier this week he was canceling.

"We continue to prepare for a meeting between the President and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. The two sides were meeting at Panmunjom, the border town where the armistice that halted — but didn’t technically end — the Korean War was signed in 1953.

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Still, the optimism came as some Republican senators said they were not convinced a deal was possible.

Sen. Marco Rubio said Sunday he was deeply skeptical that North Korea would actually give up its nuclear weapons.

Rubio believes Kim “is going to try to get as much sanctions relief as possible without having to give up his weapons," the Florida Republican said on CBS' "Face The Nation." "And I think it's going to be a lot of twists and turns along the way to try to get there, if it's even possible. But I hope I'm wrong.”

While Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, did not say so directly, there has long been talk about whether the United States would act militarily if there was a fear that North Korea could strike the U.S., particularly if no deal can be reached.

"I’m not in favor of that; it’s not something that I relish or take lightly,” Rubio said. “I’m just telling you that could very well be the option we wind up with at the end."

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said many people were skeptical of the likelihood of a deal.

"I think many of us question whether they're going to get there," Flake said on NBC's “Meet the Press.“ "But let me say, a freeze would be better than we've had before. So, there's nothing wrong with saying, 'Hey, they may not denuclearize, but we could have a better situation than we currently have.'"

The president was spotted on Sunday with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has previously said Congress would consider giving aid to North Korea if the country scuttles its nuclear program.

Before the recent push for a possible deal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, Trump and Kim exchanged increasingly heated rhetoric as the two nations jostled each other.

Rubio called Kim's decision to release three Americans held in the country and Pyongyang's recent claim that it dismantled a nuclear weapons testing site a "show."

"I think the first thing we all have to do is stop pretending that we’re dealing with the Soviet Union, the old Soviet Union, or that we’re negotiating with Italy or France," Rubio said. "This is a very erratic regime that’s very ... paranoid about the rest of the world, distrustful of the rest of the world."