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Trump may meet with South Korea's Moon before summit with Kim

U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in hold a joint news conference at the Blue House in Seoul, South Korea November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump may meet with South Korea's president before his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to seek a denuclearisation deal, a White House official said on Wednesday.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is due to meet with Kim on Friday, and Trump has said he could have talks with the North Korean leader in late May or June.

White House national security adviser John Bolton spoke with his South Korean counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, on Wednesday and they discussed "looking into a meeting between the two presidents that would take place before the United States-North Korea summit," the official said.

The United States is pressing North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and says it will keep up a policy of "maximum pressure" on Pyongyang through sanctions to achieve that goal.

Moon said last week that North Korea had expressed a commitment to "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula, and Pyongyang said on Saturday it would immediately suspend nuclear and missile tests.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Eric Beech; Editing by Peter Cooney)