South Korea says discussing peace deal with North Korea ahead of summit

U.S. Secretary of State nominee and CIA Director Mike Pompeo became the most senior U.S. official ever known to have met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when Pompeo visited Pyongyang over a weekend at the end of March to discuss a planned summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Pompeo's visit provided the strongest sign yet about Trump's willingness to become the first serving U.S. president ever to meet a North Korean leader.

At the same time, old rivals North Korea and South Korea are preparing for their own summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 27, with a bid to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War a major factor in talks.

"As one of the plans, we are looking at a possibility of shifting the Korean peninsula's armistice to a peace regime," a high-ranking South Korean presidential official told reporters when asked about the North-South summit.

"We want to include discussions to end hostile acts between the South and North".

South Korea and a U.S.-led U.N. force are technically still at war with North Korea after the Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Such discussions between the two Koreas, and between North Korea and the United States, would have been unthinkable at the end of last year, after months of escalating tension, and fear of war, over the North's nuclear and missile programmes.

But then North Korea's leader declared in a New Year's speech his country was "a peace-loving and responsible nuclear power" and called for lower military tension and improved ties with the South.

He also said he was considering sending a delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February.

A visit by a high-level North Korean delegation to the Olympics began a succession of steps to improve ties.

WAR NOT OVER

Trump said on Tuesday he backed efforts between North and South Korea aimed at ending the state of war that has existed between their countries for so long.

"People don't realise the Korean War has not ended," Trump told reporters.

"It's going on right now. And they are discussing an end to the war. Subject to a deal, they have my blessing and they do have my blessing to discuss that."

Trump said he believed there was a lot of goodwill in the diplomatic push with North Korea, but added it was possible the summit - first proposed in March and which the president said could take place in late May or early June - may not happen.

If the summit did not happen, the United States and its allies would maintain pressure on Pyongyang through sanctions, he said.

Nevertheless, Pompeo's conversations in North Korea had fuelled Trump's belief that productive negotiations were possible with North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, but far from guaranteed, according to a U.S. senior official briefed on the trip.

The visit, a second U.S. official said, was arranged by South Korean intelligence chief Suh Hoon with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Yong Chol, and was intended to assess whether Kim was prepared to hold serious talks.

South Korean officials declined to comment on Pompeo's visit.