US, N.Korea hold 5th round of summit prep talks

US and North Korean officials held a fifth round of working-level talks at the border truce village of Panmunjom on Monday to prepare for a planned summit between the leaders of the two countries.

Sung Kim, US ambassador to the Philippines and former nuclear envoy, is leading the American delegation while the North's team is headed by Pyongyang's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, reports Yonhap News Agency.

They met in the same place on May 27, May 30, June 2 and 3.

The two sides are expected to focus on narrowing the gaps over how to achieve Pyongyang's complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID) and offer in return Washington's security guarantee in the same CVI manner.

The two sides could also discuss the issue of declaring a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

On June 1, US President Donald Trump put the planned summit with Kim Jong-un back on track after he cancelled it on May 24, citing "open hostility" from the communist regime.

The reversal came after a conciliatory gesture from Pyongyang and Seoul's mediation.

--IANS

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