02 January 2019•Update: 03 January 2019
By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he expects to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a second time as Washington continues to seek the North’s denuclearization.
Trump said he recently received a "great" letter from Kim Jong-un, claiming the U.S. has "made a lot of progress" in talks with Pyongyang. But he did not specify the letter's content.
"We really established a very good relationship, a lot of good things are happening," he told reporters at the White House. "We had our meeting six months ago in Singapore. We'll probably now have another meeting. He'd like to meet, I'd like to meet."
The comments come on the heels of a nationally-televised speech from Kim on Tuesday in which he said he would be willing to meet again with Trump, but warned Pyongyang might pursue a "new path" if Washington does not lift its sanctions against the country.
Talks between the U.S. and North Korea have largely stalled amid the North's insistence that the U.S. begin to ease the economic pressure, a move the U.S. has roundly rejected until a deal to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons is reached.
But Trump hailed the ongoing negotiations, without which he "You'd be having a nice big fat war in Asia."
U.S. ally South Korea has also been holding parallel talks with its northern neighbor seeking a formal end to the Korean war, as well as an end the North's ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
In an unprecedented thaw in ties, South and North Korean leaders met three times in 2018 -- in April, May, and September.
The April 27 meeting featured the signing of the historic Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity Unification of the Korean Peninsula, a formal foundation for further denuclearization of North Korea and a peace deal between the two countries.
