AKIPRESS.COM - US President Donald Trump has accepted an invitation from the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to hold an unprecedented summit meeting to discuss the future of the embattled regime’s nuclear and missile program, The Guardian reported.

In a stunning development following months of tension and mutual sabre-rattling, senior South Korean officials appeared outside the White House to announce the news, having verbally conveyed Kim’s invitation to Trump. The White House confirmed Trump was ready to meet Kim “by May”, at a time and location yet to be determined.

If the meeting takes place it would be the first ever between leaders of the two countries.

Pyongyang has long sought a summit with the US to reflect what the regime sees as its status as a regional military power. Bill Clinton came close to agreeing to a meeting with Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, in 2000, but arrangements had not been made by the time he left office in January 2001.

Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s president, praised the possible meeting as a “historic milestone” on the way to peace on the peninsula.

Trump himself confirmed the meeting in a tweet, adding that US sanctions would remain in place until a denuclearisation deal was achieved.