Kim ‘ready to give up arsenal’

NORTH KOREA: North Korea is prepared to accept ‘‘complete denuclearisation’’, South Korea’s president has said, after US President Donald Trump vowed to abandon talks with the regime if they were not ‘‘fruitful’’.

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, is reportedly also no longer demanding that US troops leave South Korea as a condition for giving up his nuclear arsenal, a key stumbling block in previous negotiations.

Yesterday, Moon Jae-in, the South’s president, announced that the North Korean regime had dropped the request from its list of demands ahead of talks.

‘‘North Korea is expressing a commitment to a complete denuclearisation,’’ Moon told reporters.

‘‘North Korea is only talking about the end of a hostile policy against it and then a security guarantee for the country.’’

If officially confirmed by Pyongyang, the move could speed up plans for the first summit between the US and North Korea’s leaders.

Moon made the announcement after Trump threatened to abandon his planned meeting with Kim if he decided it would not be successful, or to walk out if it was not productive while he was there.

‘‘If we don’t think it’s going to be successful, we won’t have it,’’ Trump said at a news conference with Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, on Thursday.

Trump wants to hold his historic meeting with the North Korean leader with only interpreters present, according to South Korean media.

Their meeting could take place as early as next month or June, following a summit next week between Kim and Moon that will discuss relations between the North and South.

– Telegraph Group