US, N Korean officials discuss implementation of Trump-Kim agreement

A group of officials from the United States and North Korea met at Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the de facto border separating North and South Korea on Sunday, senior US State Department officials said.

The US delegation, led by the envoy to the Philippines, Sung Kim, met North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and discussed the implementation of the joint agreement signed by US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their June 12 meeting in Singapore, CNN reported.

The two diplomats also reportedly discussed the forthcoming visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to North Korea, which is likely to happen this week.

Earlier in the day, US national security advisor John Bolton said in a CBS interview that Pompeo would communicate with officials in North Korea on the dismantling of their nuclear weapon programme in the near future.

He added that if North Korea cooperated, the process would be completed within a year and Pyongyang would receive sanctions relief.

Last month, Pompeo told CNN that he would "constantly reassess" on whether "enough process" was being made by North Korea on denuclearisation to continue negotiations, adding that he would not set a deadline for the same.

The US Secretary of State also remarked that North Korea continued to be a nuclear threat, adding that the US will not ease sanctions unless Pyongyang achieved "complete and verifiable denuclearisation".

This was in stark contrast to Trump, who tweeted that "North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat", upon returning from Singapore after the summit.

In the June 12 meeting, Trump and Kim had signed a joint agreement, wherein the latter agreed to work for a 'complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula' in exchange for security guarantees by the US.