U.S. President Donald Trump says he sees "brilliant potential" in North Korea as he confirmed that a team from the United States had arrived in the North "to make arrangements for the summit."
His Twitter statement on May 27 continued the upbeat tone he has used about a potential summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, days after the U.S. president called off the meeting, only to reverse himself the next day.
"I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!" Trump wrote.
"Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself," Trump also wrote.
Earlier on May 27, the U.S. State Department issued a statement confirming that "a U.S. delegation is in ongoing talks with North Korean officials" in the border settlement of Panmunjom.
According to media reports, former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Sung Kim was leading the delegation.
The talks came one day after Trump signaled that preparations for a June 12 summit with Kim in Singapore were going ahead.
Days earlier the U.S. leader sent Kim a letter stating that he was canceling the proposed meeting.
Trump said at the White House on May 26 that the date "hasn't changed" and that things were "moving along very nicely."
Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said a "pre-advance team" had left for Singapore early on May 27 to work on logistics for the summit.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who met with the North Korean leader in a surprise summit on May 26, said he and Kim had agreed that the North Korea-U.S. summit must be held.
"Chairman Kim and I have agreed that the June 12 summit should be held successfully, and that our quest for the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization and a perpetual peace regime should not be halted," Moon said.
The South Korean leader acknowledged that Washington and Pyongyang likely still had differing expectations of what "denuclearization" actually means, but he urged both sides to work to resolve any differences.
U.S. officials have demanded the "complete, verifiable, and irreversible" dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear-weapons program, while Pyongyang has rejected unilateral disarmament.
The North Korea has said it could consider giving up its nuclear weapons if Washington removed its troops from the South and ended its nuclear guarantees for its allies South Korea and Japan.
U.S. officials have also suggested that Washington would provide financial aid and security guarantees if Pyongyang gave up its nuclear arms.