Trump hopes to see whole Korean peninsula live together

US President Donald Trump voiced hope on 18 April that North and South Korea, technically still at war, can pave the way to a lasting peace at a series of upcoming summits.

Trump made the comments amid a flurry of diplomatic activity that has fuelled hopes of a major breakthrough in the standoff with Pyongyang.

‘We hope to see the day when the whole Korean peninsula can live together in safety, prosperity and peace,’ Trump said.

‘As I’ve said before, there is a bright path available to North Korea when it achieves denuclearisation in a complete and verifiable and irreversible way.’

Earlier on 18 April, the US leader confirmed a clandestine meeting had already taken place between his CIA chief and the North’s reclusive leader.

News of the talks between North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and Mike Pompeo, Trump’s pick to be the next secretary of state, comes with hopes riding high on a pair of upcoming and potentially historic summits.

Kim is expected to meet South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in in the week starting 23 April for landmark talks at which discussion of a formal peace declaration is now on the cards. Trump’s talks with Kim would then follow.

Trump earlier said that the inter-Korean summit could, with his ‘blessing,’ explore a peace treaty to formally end the conflict.

But reaching any final treaty would be fraught with complications: while the US-led United Nations command, China and North Korea are signatories to the decades-old armistice, South Korea is not.

Trump and Kim have not yet spoken directly, the White House said, but the President revealed on 17 April that there had been contact at ‘very high levels’ to prepare for the historic meeting - an apparent reference to Pompeo’s visit.

US officials say that no decision has yet been made on a meeting venue, but China, North Korea, South Korea, and Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone are seen as possible locations.