This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has expressed “great satisfaction” after receiving a letter from Donald Trump ahead of a second summit between the two leaders, Pyongyang’s state media reported on Thursday.



Kim is making “good technical preparations” for the meeting, the official KCNA news agency said, in the country’s first comments on the talks scheduled for February.

Trump and Kim Jong-un to meet again at second nuclear summit Read more

The letter was handed to Kim by Kim Yong-chol, North Korea’s top negotiator and a veteran spy chief, who met Trump at the White House last week.

“(Kim) spoke highly of President Trump for expressing his unusual determination and will for the settlement of the issue with a great interest in the second DPRK-US summit,” KCNA said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Kim said North Korea would “believe in the positive way of thinking of President Trump” as the countries advance “step by step” towards their goals, the agency added.

On Saturday, Trump said a location for the summit had been decided, without giving more details.

However, a Vietnamese government source said “logistical preparations” were under way to host the encounter, most likely in the capital Hanoi or coastal city of Danang.

The White House has confirmed the summit will go ahead in February

Kim and Trump first met in June in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely worded document in which Kim pledged to work toward the “denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.

But progress stalled soon after as Pyongyang and Washington – which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea – disagreed over what that meant.

The United States expects Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal, doggedly built by the Kim dynasty, despite sanctions and nationwide famines.

Kim, whose family has ruled North Korea for three generations, is seeking guarantees of the regime’s survival as well as relief from UN sanctions.