Pyongyang official news agency says leaders ‘agreed to keep in close touch in future’

North Korea has described the weekend meeting between its leader Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump as “historic” and “amazing”.

Trump became the first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea on Sunday when he met Kim in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas and agreed to resume stalled nuclear talks.

“The top leaders of the DPRK and the US exchanging historic handshakes at Panmunjom” was an “amazing event”, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said, describing the truce village as a “place that had been known as the symbol of division”.

KCNA said Kim and Trump discussed “issues of mutual concern and interest which become a stumbling block in solving those issues”.

“The top leaders of the two countries agreed to keep in close touch in the future, too, and resume and push forward productive dialogues for making a new breakthrough in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and in the bilateral relations,” said KCNA.

Play Video 1:19 Kim Jong-un welcomes Donald Trump to North Korea – video

The meeting, initiated by a tweet by Trump on Saturday from the G20, that Kim said took him by surprise, displayed the rapport between the two, but analysts said they were no closer to narrowing the gap between their positions since they walked away from their summit in February in Vietnam.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, told reporters shortly before departing South Korea that a new round of talks would likely happen “sometime in July” and the North’s negotiators would be foreign ministry diplomats.

In a photo released by KCNA on Monday, North Korea’s foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, and Pompeo are shown sitting next to Kim and Trump respectively in Freedom House, the building in which the two leaders had their one-on-one talks.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump meets with Kim Jong-un, accompanied by US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and North Korea’s foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho. Photograph: KCNA/Reuters

KCNA said that during the chat between Trump and Kim, the two leaders explained “issues of easing tensions on the Korean peninsula” as well as “issues of mutual concern and interest which become a stumbling block in solving those issues,” and “voiced full understanding and sympathy.”

Kim said it was the good personal relationship he had with Trump that made such a dramatic meeting possible at just one day’s notice and that the relationship with Trump would continue to produce good results, according to KCNA.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the demilitarised zone on Sunday. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

The two leaders’ “bold, brave decision” that led to the historic meeting “created unprecedented trust between the two countries” that had been tangled in deeply rooted animosity, KCNA said.

Democratic politicians in the US, including presidential frontrunners, said there was little in Trump’s diplomatic track to convince them that his meeting with Kim Jong-un may lead to a nuclear breakthrough.

Trump has come under criticism for what Democrats see as his affinity for authoritarian leaders such as Kim and they are skeptical that the Trump-Kim sit-down would amount to anything more than a photo opportunity.

Senator Chuck Schumer said “dictators seem to get elevated and people who believe in democracy not”. The former housing secretary Julian Castro, a presidential candidate, wondered why Trump was keen to raise Kim’s profile when, according to Castro, Kim has not abided by past commitments on weapons programmes.

Bernie Sanders said he is not opposed to sitting down with America’s adversaries, but he told ABC’s “This Week” that “we need real diplomacy” and he hasn’t seen that under Trump.