Kim Jong Un briefs party leaders on future dialogue with US
North Korea is actively preparing for a dialogue with US President Donald Trump about nuclear weapons program; Trumps says meeting with Kim will happen in late May or early June.
Kim gave his "profound analysis and appraisal" of the prospects for North Korea-US dialogue at a meeting of the Politburo of the ruling party's Central Committee, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. The meeting was held on Monday.
Though the report did not explicitly mention plans for the summit with Trump, it was the most concrete suggestion to date that Pyongyang is preparing for what would be the first-ever summit between a North Korean leader and a sitting US president.
Kim Jong Un as well as high ranking officials from the North have been engaging other countries in a flurry of diplomacy in recent weeks with the North Korean leader making a surprise visit to China last month, talking with President Xi Jinping.
That was the first time Kim has left the North since assuming power in 2011 and was also his first meeting with another head of state.
North Korea's parliament, called the Supreme People's Assembly, is scheduled to convene Wednesday.
KCNA said Kim outlined in detail his analysis on the situation on the Korean Peninsula and mentioned the North-South summit, which will be held on the south side of the DMZ on April 27.
He then discussed the "prospect of the DPRK-US dialogue and set forth the strategic and tactical issues" to be maintained by the party.
US and North Korean officials have held secret contacts recently in which Pyongyang directly confirmed its willingness to hold the unprecedented summit.
Any meeting between Kim and Trump would come after the two Koreas hold their first summit in more than a decade later this month.
Trump said Monday their meeting might be in late May or even in June. The location has yet to be announced.
"We'll be meeting with them sometime in May or early June and I think there'll be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully we'll be able to make a deal on the de-nuking of North Korea," Trump told reporters at the beginning of a Cabinet meeting.
"They've said so. We've said so," Trump said. "Hopefully, it'll be a relationship that's much different than it's been for many, many years."
Trump expressed hope that a deal to get Pyongyang to denuclearize might be made. Administration officials say the North has communicated that Kim is ready to discuss his nuclear weapons program.
Questions remain about what conditions Kim might tack on to any denuclearization agreement.
Wednesday's parliament meeting could provide further clues as to what approach Kim might intend to take for the negotiation.
