Donald Trump says US and North Korea are speaking directly at 'extremely high levels' ahead of potential meeting

'We’ll either have a very good meeting or we won't have a good meeting'

Donald Trump has said the US and North Korea are engaged in direct talks at “extremely high levels” ahead of possible meeting between himself and Kim Jong-un.

Talking to reporters during a meeting with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe at this private estate in Florida, Mr Trump said he had also given his blessing to the negotiations between North and South Korea to formally ended hostilities when they meet later this month.

The meeting between Mr Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, will be the third inter-Korean summit since the Koreas’ 1945 division.

“They do have my blessing to discuss the end of the war,” said Mr Trump, according to the Associated Press.

Mr Trump is looking to hold his own summit with mr Kim in the next two months and he said that five locations were under consideration. The proposed summit follows months of increasingly heated rhetoric over the North’s nuclear weapons programme.

“We have had direct talks at very high levels – extremely high levels – with North Korea,” Mr Trump said, of the meeting that would make him the first sitting US president to meet with a North Korean leader.

“We’ll either have a very good meeting or we won’t have a good meeting,” he said. “And maybe we won’t even have a meeting at all depending on what’s going in. But I think that there’s a great chance to solve a world problem.“

The president did not answer shouted questions about whether he had already personally spoken with Mr Kim.

Mr Kim’s offer for a summit was initially conveyed to Trump by South Korea last month, and the president accepted.

US officials have indicated over the past two weeks that North Korea’s government has communicated directly with Washington that it is ready to discuss its nuclear weapons programme. The officials also said discussions between the two sides are being held in preparation for a summit.

Mr Abe, who has voiced fears that short- and medium-range missiles that pose a threat to Japan might not be part of the US negotiations, praised Trump on Tuesday for his bravery in agreeing to meet with the North Korean dictator.

“I’d like to commend Donald’s courage in his decision to have the upcoming summit meeting with the North Korean leader,” he said.