US President likely to meet North Korean leader in May

President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who have been trading insults and threats of nuclear annihilation for months, have agreed to meet to negotiate an end to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, South Korean and US officials said Thursday.

No sitting American president has ever met with a North Korea leader.

The meeting, to be held in May, would be unprecedented during seven decades of animosity between the US and North Korea. The countries remain in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty.

“Great progress being made,” Trump tweeted after the South Korean national security director, Chung Eui-yong, announced the plans to reporters in a hastily called appearance on a White House driveway.

Standing in front of the White House, South Korean National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong earlier announced the first-ever meeting between a US president and North Korean leader, which he said would take place by the end of May.

Chung had recently returned from Pyongyang, where he met Kim personally. According to the South Korean official, the reclusive young leader “expressed his eagerness to meet president Trump as soon as possible.”