Trump says direct talks with North Korea have already started

Andrew Harnik)/Associated Press

Trump and Abe.

• President Donald Trump confirmed that the US and North Korea are already conducting talks.
• Trump said the talks are happening at "extremely high levels."
• The talks come ahead of a potential meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US has already started speaking directly with North Korea ahead of a proposed meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year.

"We've also started talking to North Korea directly," Trump said, according to Bloomberg White House correspondent Jennifer Jacobs. "We have had direct talks at very high levels, extremely high levels with North Korea."

Trump was speaking to reporters alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump said that talks with Kim would take place "probably in early June" or "a little before that" or not at all. Trump also said five locations were under consideration for the potential meeting, but did not confirm where.

Reuters

Kim Jong Un.

The president also said he would bring up the cases of three US citizens being held in North Korea in a potential sit-down with Kim.

Trump also said that North and South Korea "have my blessing" to discuss ending the "Korean War," which was concluded by an armistice in 1953 but never officially ended.

Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are set to meet for the first time on April 27, a summit that could lead to a peace announcement, an unnamed South Korean intelligence source told newspaper Munhwa Ilbo.

CNN reported earlier this month that secret, direct talks were underway between Washington and Pyongyang in preparation for a summit between the two countries' leaders. Several administration officials told CNN that a team at the CIA, led by then-Director Mike Pompeo, was working through intelligence back-channels to arrange the meeting.

US and North Korean had spoken several times and met in a third country, working to settle on a location for the potential meeting, according to CNN.