U.S. officials meet with North Korea despite flip-flops over Trump-Kim summit

American and North Korean officialsmet Sunday at the border between North and South Korea in preparation for a possible North Korea-U.S. summit, as North Korea's Kim Jong-un reportedly reaffirmed his commitment to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Both Pyongyang and Washington are pressing ahead on plansfor a summit after Trump pulled out of the proposed June 12meeting on Thursday, only to reconsider the decision the nextday.

"A U.S. delegation is in ongoing talks with North Koreanofficials at Panmunjom," spokespersonHeather Nauert said, referring to a village in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that runsalong the heavily armed border between North and South Korea.

"We continue to prepare for a meeting between the presidentand North Korean leader Kim Jong-un," she said in a statement.

Trump posted a message about the preparations in a Tweet on Sunday afternoon.

In addition to the border talks, White House spokespersonSarah Sanders said a "pre-advance team" left for Singapore onSunday morning to work on logistics for a possible summit.

Earlier on Sunday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in saidhe and North Korea's Kim had agreed during a surprise meeting onSaturday that the North Korea-U.S. summit must be held.

Chairman Kim and I have agreed that the June 12 summit should be held successfully.- South Korean President Moon Jae-in

The weekend meetings were the latest dramatic turn in a weekof diplomatic ups and downs over the prospects for an unprecedented summit between the United States and North Korea,and the strongest sign yet that the leaders of the two Koreasare trying to keep the meeting on track.

North Korea has faced years of economic sanctions over itsnuclear and missile programs since it conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. The United States has struggled to slowthe isolated country's weapons programs, which have become asecurity priority for Washington given Pyongyang's promise todevelop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S.mainland.

A U.S. official told Reuters that Sung Kim, the former U.S.ambassador to South Korea, would lead an American delegation tomeet North Korean officials at the border. Pentagon officialRandall Schriver was part of the U.S. team, the official said.

Meetings to continue Monday

The Washington Post first reported that the team, which alsoincluded Allison Hooker, the Korea expert on the White HouseNational Security Council, met with Choe Son-hui, the NorthKorean vice foreign minister.

The Post said the meetings would continue Monday and Tuesdayat Tongilgak, the North's building in Panmunjom, where the trucesuspending the 1950-53 Korean War was signed.

In their Saturday meeting, Kim reaffirmed his commitment to"complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and to aplanned meeting with Trump, Moon said.

"Chairman Kim and I have agreed that the June 12 summitshould be held successfully, and that our quest for the KoreanPeninsula's denuclearization and a perpetual peace regime shouldnot be halted," Moon said.

Moon acknowledged Pyongyang and Washington may havediffering expectations of what denuclearization means, and heurged both sides to hold working-level talks to resolve theirdifferences.

The United States has demanded the "complete, verifiable,and irreversible" dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weaponsprogram. Pyongyang has rejected unilateral disarmament and hasalways couched its language in terms of denuclearization of theKorean Peninsula.

In previous, failed talks, North Korea said it couldconsider giving up its arsenal if Washington removed its troops from South Korea and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella ofdeterrence from South Korea and Japan.

Mutual mistrust

North Korea has tested dozens of missiles of various typesin the past two years, including one launch of its largest-everintercontinental ballistic missile, which is theoreticallycapable of hitting anywhere in the United States, on Nov. 29.

American officials are skeptical that Kim will ever fullyabandon his nuclear arsenal, whileMoon said North Korea is not
convinced it can trust security guarantees from the U.S.

Trump scrapped the summit after repeated threats by NorthKorea to pull out over what it saw as confrontational remarks byU.S. officials demanding unilateral disarmament.

North Korea had sharply criticized suggestions by Trump'snational security adviser, John Bolton, and Vice-President MikePence that it could share the fate of Libya if it did notswiftly surrender its nuclear arsenal. Libyan leader Moammar
Gadhafi was deposed and killed by NATO-backed militants in 2011after halting his nascent nuclear program.

Trump dismissed the so-called Libya model. Sanders, hisspokesperson, told Fox News on May 15: "This is the PresidentTrump model. He's going to run this the way he sees fit."

Kim had requested a meeting with Moon to clarify what the"Trump model" meant, Yonhap news agency of South Korea reported,citing an unidentified foreign affairs source.