Insults halted as US and North Korea to hold talks

MEETING: Trump and Kim Jong Un plan face-to-face encounter in May

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump plan to meet in May for nuclear disarmament talks, possibly in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

It would have been an unthinkable suggestion just a few months ago, when the insults were at their peak.

Mr Trump was a “senile dotard” and Mr Kim was “Little Rocket Man” and the North was carrying out regular weapons tests.

Liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who some believe has manoeuvred the two leaders to this position, declared it will be a “historical milestone” that will put the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula “really on track”.

However, there is also considerable scepticism.

Some speculate that the North is trying to peel Washington away from its ally Seoul, weaken crippling sanctions and buy time for nuclear development.

It has also, from the US point of view, repeatedly cheated on past nuclear deals.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Djibouti the decision to meet with Mr Kim was made by Mr Trump himself and resulted from a sharp change in the North Korean leader’s stance.

“What changed was his posture in a fairly dramatic way. It was a surprise to us that he was so forward-leaning,” Mr Tillerson said.

He said it would take “some weeks” before the timing of the talks is worked out.

North Korea appeared to confirm the summit plans.

A senior North Korean diplomat at the United Nations in New York, Pak Song Il, told the Washington Post in an email that the invitation was the result of Mr Kim’s “broad-minded and resolute decision” to contribute to the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula.

Talks between Washington and Pyongyang have previously been overseen by lower-level experts and have often bogged down, even when so-called “breakthroughs” have come, in the details, such as allowing outsiders in to inspect North Korea’s nuclear compliance, for instance.

Mr Trump took office vowing to stop North Korea from its pursuit of a working long-range nuclear-tipped missile.

Mr Kim, who had used his annual New Year’s address to warn the United States of a supposed nuclear button on his desk, has an economy battered by heavy international sanctions.

Mr Trump said the sanctions against the North will remain in place until there’s a deal.

Picture: AP. A woman in Tokyo walks by a huge screen showing US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un. The two men are planning face-toface talks.