Sol _ Agencies
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the two Koreas should continue to work on nuclear disarmament, while a date has been set for his next meeting with South Korean president Mon Jae-en.
The Seoul Presidential office announced Thursday that a third summit between Mon and Kim will be held in Pyongyang, North Korea, between September 18 and 20 September.
The date was set on Wednesday at a meeting between a visiting South Korean delegation and Kim in Pyongyang, during which the North Korean leader reaffirmed his commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
"This is his country´s firm stance and willingness to remove the threat of armed conflict and war horror from the Korean peninsula and turn it into a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from nuclear threat," said Kim, according to the North Korean Central News Agency.
The Pyongyang summit will be the third of the two Koreas after their first meeting in the "truce village " Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border in April, and the second in May at the same site, ahead of Kim´s summit in June with US president Donald Trump in Singapore.
Although Trump said after his historic meeting with Kim in Singapore that North Korea is "no longer a nuclear threat," relations between Pyongyang and Washington have deteriorated since then.
Trump last month abruptly cancelled a trip to Pyongyang by Foreign Minister Mike Pompeto, citing a lack of progress on nuclear disarmament.
Seoul National Security Advisor Chung Iwi Yong, who attended the meeting on Wednesday, said Kim disagreed with the US assessment, noting that North Korea had taken significant and meaningful steps for nuclear disarmament, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
Kim said his country no longer had the necessary means to conduct nuclear tests after the only known test site was destroyed in May before meeting with Trump.
Chung said the North Korean leader regretted that the international community did not take his efforts seriously, according to Yonhap.
Chung also said Kim wants complete nuclear disarmament before the end of Trump´s first presidential term in 2021.
The Mon office later reported that Chung would make a phone call to US National Security advisor John Bolton on Thursday, conveying a message from Kim to the United States.
Chung had earlier refused to discuss the details of the letter.
