US-N Korea talks could resume during Trump's Japan visits

US President Donald Trump's upcoming visits to Japan in the next two months could lead to the resumption of negotiations between the US and North Korea on Pyongyang's denuclearisation process, said a special adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday.

"Maybe when Trump visits Japan in May and June, he will also visit South Korea, and if so, I think, talks between the US and North Korea will be also possible," Yonhap News Agency quoted Moon Chung-in, a special presidential adviser for unification, foreign and security affairs, as saying during an event on inter-Korean ties here.

Trump is scheduled to pay a visit to Japan next month. He is also slated to visit the East Asian nation for the G-20 summit in Osaka in June.

Stressing that he remained optimistic of resumption of nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington despite the deadlock, Moon Chung-in said, "It is true that uncertainties are looming after the Hanoi summit and that we are in a difficult situation with goals to build a peace regime, keep the US-South Korea alliance and achieve denuclearisation."

"Yet, I always think that where there is a will, there is a way," he added.

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had met for the second time in Hanoi ended in a stalemate. But the summit abruptly ended without a deal due to the failure of reaching a consensus over Pyongyang's denuclearisation process and Washington's sanctions relief.

Ties between the US and North Korea have hit a roadblock over the ease of sanctions, where Pyongyang sought relief as a recognition of the steps taken towards denuclearisation.

Washington has, until now, reinforced that relief in sanctions would only be given after Pyongyang carries out "complete and verifiable" denuclearisation.

South Korea has been striving to create the momentum for the resumption of nuclear talks between the US and North Korea that have been stalled since the collapse of the Hanoi summit.

During his meeting with Moon Jae-in last week in Washington, Trump had said he is open to a third summit with Kim while noting that his relationship with the North Korean leader remains 'good'.

In response, Kim also voiced his willingness for another summit with Trump, but with conditions.

"If the US proposes holding a third North Korea-US summit with a right attitude and a right method, we have a wiliness to do it one more time," Kim was quoted by Yonhap, as saying.

It is widely speculated that Moon Jae-in is expected to participate in the proposed third US-North Korea summit, along with Trump and Kim, in order to keep denuclearisation talks on track and to chalk out a peace deal to end the over six-decades-long Korean War.

The South Korean president has also said that he is keen on hosting a fourth inter-Korean summit with Kim, in an effort to further improve relations between the two Korean nations, as well as brokering a denuclearisation deal between Pyongyang and Washington to break the impasse.