Trump to visit S Korea for talks on North's nukes: White House

Washington: President Donald Trump will visit South Korea in June to meet with his counterpart Moon Jae-in over their efforts to persuade North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons arsenal, the White House has said.

It will be the second meeting between the pair since the collapse of a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in February after they failed to reach a deal on denuclearisation.

"President Trump and President Moon will continue their close coordination on efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearisation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," the White House said in a statement on Wednesday, using North Korea's official name.

The dovish South Korean president, who has long backed engagement with the nuclear-armed North, brokered the talks process between Trump and Kim, which led to their first landmark summit in Singapore last June.

But security allies Seoul and Washington have at times appeared to diverge on their approach to Pyongyang, and Seoul's simultaneous announcement of the visit was noticeably different in its phrasing.

A statement issued by the South's presidential office said the two leaders will discuss "establishing a lasting peace regime through the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula" — rather than the North specifically.

The "denuclearisation

of the Korean peninsula" was the term used in the joint statement signed by Kim and Trump after their first summit in Singapore.

But it is a phrase open to wide interpretation, and the process has become bogged down as the two sides disagree over what it means.

In the past, Pyongyang has argued it must include the removal of Washington's nuclear umbrella over the South and the 28,500 US troops stationed in the country.