U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he is likely to meet with the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong Un, "quite soon."
Speaking with media as he came to the United Nations for an anti-drug speech, Trump said that "tremendous progress" has been achieved concerning the DPRK's efforts on nuke and missile test halting.
"It was a different world," Trump said when asked to note the difference of this year's Korean Peninsula situation from that of last year. "That was a dangerous time. This is one year later, a much different time."
"It looks like we'll have a second summit quite soon," he said. "As you know Kim Jong Un wrote a letter, a beautiful letter, asking for a second meeting and we will be doing that."
He added that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is doing preparations for the two leaders' summit.
Trump was expected to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in later on Monday. Moon met with Kim last week and was reportedly carrying a personal message from Kim to Trump.
At the conclusion of the historic Trump-Kim summit in June in Singapore, the two sides issued a joint statement, agreeing to improve bilateral relations and work together to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the peninsula.
However, U.S.-DPRK talks have been stuck in an impasse due to their differences in the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions, and whether to issue a war-ending declaration.
In August, just one day after Pompeo announced his visit to the DPRK, Trump tweeted that he had asked Pompeo not to go due to the insufficient progress with the DPRK.
During his Sept. 18-20 trip to Pyongyang, Moon held talks with Kim, and signed the Pyongyang Declaration on further steps toward the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization and concrete measures to end hostile acts near inter-Korean border areas.
Pompeo said later in response that the United States is ready to transform its relations with the DPRK immediately.
Pompeo added that he had invited DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho to meet in New York City where they are scheduled to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
He also said on Friday that he hoped to travel to Pyongyang soon to prepare for the second summit between Trump and Kim.
