Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un to hold second meeting in February

President Donald Trump and North Korean Kim Jong-un will hold a second historic summit in late February, the White House announced after fresh talks in Washington DC on Friday.

The White House announced the plan after Mr Trump spent 90 minutes meeting with North Korea's top negotiator Kim Yong-chol in the Oval Office.

The summit follows the first meeting between the two leaders in 2018 where they shook hands and agreed to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

The location of the meeting is yet to be set, but reports suggest Vietnam, Thailand and Hawaii are all under consideration.

Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said: “President Donald J Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearisation and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February. The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date.”

In Singapore last June, Mr Trump and Kim were seen laughing over lunch and the North Korean promised to blow up a nuclear test site.

However hopes for ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme remained muted after the highly anticipated summit ended with a vague denuclearisation agreement and talks appeared to have stalled since then.

North Korea has pushed for harsh economic sanctions to be eased before it makes steps towards dismantling the bulk of its nuclear programme, while the US has insisted that denuclearisation must form the basis of any future progress.

A second summit is expected to focus on more specific aims. The North Korean leader met with China's Xi Jing-pin earlier this year in a sign the two were preparing for an upcoming meeting with the US.

Yesterday marked the second time Mr Trump has met with Kim Yong-chol - Pyongyang’s lead negotiator with the United States and a hardline former spy chief travelled to the White House last year to deliver a letter from the North Korean leader.

That meeting preceded the June summit in Singapore between the two leaders. It is believed that Mr Kim has brought a second letter for Mr Trump on this visit.

Earlier in the day Mr Kim held a 45-minute meeting with Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, at a hotel in Washington.

The pair did not take questions from journalists but the accord was judged to be a success given Mr Kim's subsequent trip to the White House.