DPRK's state media says breakthrough achieved in Kim-Trump meeting

PYONGYANG -- The historic meeting between Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and US President Donald Trump at the truce village of Panmunjom made a new breakthrough in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, DPRK state media reported Monday.

Kim and Trump agreed to keep in close touch in the future, and resume and push forward productive dialogues for making a new breakthrough in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

It was the good personal relationship with Trump that made such a dramatic meeting possible at just one-day's notice, noting that the good relations "would continue to produce good results and work at a mysterious force to overcome manifold difficulties in the future," Kim was quoted by the KCNA as saying.

After a handshake with Kim, Trump crossed the inter-Korean border, becoming the first sitting US president to enter the DPRK territory in over six decades since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

In the following meeting at the demilitarized zone, Kim and Trump explained issues of easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula and ending inglorious bilateral relations, according to KCNA. They also discussed issues of mutual concern and interest.

Meanwhile, Trump told reporters following the meeting that the United States will resume working-level dialogue with the DPRK.

The KCNA said the two leaders' bold and brave decisions that led to the historic meeting created unprecedented trust between the two countries.

Before the Sunday meeting, Kim and Trump held two summits in the past year. The first one held in Singapore last year yielded an agreement on establishing new DPRK-US relations and building a lasting and stable peace regime on the peninsula. However, the second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February ended abruptly without any agreement due to differences on the lifting of sanctions and steps to denuclearize the peninsula.