U.S. President Donald Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in North Korea on Sunday when he met its leader, Kim Jong Un, in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas and agreed to resume stalled nuclear talks.
The two men shook hands warmly and expressed hopes for peace when they met for the third time in just over a year on the old Cold War frontier that for decades has symbolized the hostility between their countries, which are technically still at war, Reuters said.
Trump, escorted by Kim, briefly crossed a military demarcation line into the North.
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Moments later, they returned to the South Korean side and joined South Korea's President Moon Jae-in for a brief chat, marking an unprecedented three-way gathering.
Trump and Kim then held a closed-door meeting for nearly an hour.
"The meeting was a very good one, very strong ... We agreed to work out details," Trump said. "We'll see what can happen."
He said both sides would set up teams to push forward stalled talks aimed at getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, adding he was in no rush for a deal.
Trump and Kim met for the first time in Singapore in June last year, and agreed to improve relations and work towards the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
But there has been little progress since then.
A second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February broke down after the two sides failed to narrow differences between a U.S. demand for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and a North Korean demand for sanctions relief.
Kim looked relaxed and smiled as he chatted with Trump amidst a throng of press photographers, aides and bodyguards.
"I was surprised to see your message that you wanted to meet me," he told Trump, referring to Trump's Saturday offer, in a Twitter posting, to meet.
"This is an expression of his willingness" to work towards a new future, Kim said.
Kim said it would be a great honor if Trump visited his capital of Pyongyang.
