BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States agreed Sunday to hold further negotiations for a second DPRK-U.S. summit as quickly as possible.
During his visit to Pyongyang on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held "productive" discussions with the DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un, according to a report by the DPRK's state-run news agency KCNA.
The top U.S. diplomat said he and Kim shared the same view over holding a second U.S.-DPRK summit as quickly as possible, while the U.S. and the DPRK sides agreed to continue consultations to determine an exact date and venue for the second Trump-Kim summit.
Pompeo and Kim also agreed to instruct their respective working-level teams to meet soon to intensify discussions on the key outstanding issues related to the Singapore Summit Joint Statement, said State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert in a statement.
Kim also invited inspectors to visit the Punggye Ri nuclear test site to confirm that it has been irreversibly dismantled, the statement said.
"President Trump looks forward to continuing to build upon the trust established with Chairman Kim in Singapore and anticipates meeting again soon," it added.
"I look forward to seeing Chairman Kim again, in the near future," U.S. President Donald Trump twitted shortly after Pompeo left the DPRK.
Progress is being made in implementing the June 12 joint statement agreed upon at the first DPRK-U.S. summit held in Singapore, said Kim, expressing his gratitude to Trump for making a sincere effort to this end, according to the KCNA.
"Kim Jong Un expressed satisfaction over the productive and wonderful talks with Mike Pompeo at which mutual positions were fully understood and opinions exchanged," said the KCNA report.
Kim also "expressed his will and conviction that great progress would surely be made in solving the issues of utmost concern in the world" in the projected second DPRK-U.S. summit talks.
Pompeo said that both leaders believe there is real, substantive progress that can be made at the next summit.
"What we all hope will be the denuclearization and the change in the relationship here on the peninsula ... I'm confident together we can achieve the outcome that the world so desperately needs," he noted.
In his following visit to South Korea on Sunday, Pompeo told South Korean President Moon Jae-in that the U.S. and the DPRK sides agreed to form working-level negotiation teams to discuss the denuclearization process and schedule for the second U.S.-DPRK summit.
Moon told Pompeo that he would make every effort to ensure the second U.S.-DPRK summit is a success.
The first-ever DPRK-U.S. summit was held in Singapore on June 12. Under a joint statement signed by Trump and Kim, the United States would provide a security guarantee to the DPRK in return for Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
However, U.S.-DPRK talks have been stuck in an impasse due to their differences over the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions, and whether to issue a war-ending declaration.
During his Sept. 18-20 trip to Pyongyang, Moon held talks with Kim and signed the Pyongyang Declaration, an advancement towards the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization and the ending of hostile acts near their shared border.
Pompeo said later in response that the United States was ready to immediately transform its relations with the DPRK.
