US-North Korea: Trump says summit with Kim is back on

Donald Trump’s summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore on 12 June is back on, the US president says, a week after it was scrapped.

Trump made the announcement after talks with a senior North Korean envoy at the White House.

The envoy, General Kim Yong-chol, hand-delivered a letter from the North Korean leader to President Trump.

Trump at first said the letter was “very interesting” but later said he had not yet opened it.

He also said the issue of formally ending the Korean War would be on the table in Singapore.

The 1950-53 conflict only ended with a truce, not a final peace treaty.

“We’ll be meeting on June 12th in Singapore. It went very well,” President Trump told reporters on the White House lawn.

“We’ve got to know their people very well,” he added.

Trump cautioned that the summit might not achieve a final deal on the North’s controversial nuclear programme.

“I never said it goes in one meeting. I think it’s going to be a process, but the relationships are building and that’s very positive,” he said.

The historic meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un would be the first between sitting US and North Korean leaders. President Trump has offered to help rebuild the North’s economy if it scraps its nuclear weapons. Kim Jong-un says he is committed to “denuclearisation” in some form but his precise demands are unclear.

Two weeks of on-off negotiations

16 May: North Korea says it may pull out of the summit, accusing the US of reckless statements and sinister intentions

24 May: Donald Trump cancels the summit, blaming “tremendous anger and open hostility” from the North

26 May: Kim Jong-un and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in meet for surprise talks at the demilitarised border between the two countries

1 June: Senior North Korean envoy General Kim Yong-chol delivers a letter from  Kim in person at the White House. Trump says the summit on 12 June is back on