Despite the U.S. having made clear that President Trump has no plans to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his visit to South Korea later this week,.... there still seem to be growing hopes for a possible Kim-Trump summit.<br />Our Lee Ji-won starts us off.<br /><br />Along with the renewed anticipation of North Korea and the U.S. resuming their denuclearization talks, comes hope for a third Pyeongyang-Washington summit.<br />And President Trump's comments to reporters at the Oval Office on Tuesday fueled speculation it might happen sooner rather than later.<br /><br />"Just a nice letter back and forth. He wrote me a beautiful letter on birthday. It was my birthday, as you know, last week. He wrote me a beautiful letter, I thought it was very nice. And just, two friendly letters. We get along very well.<br />(Reporter: No mention of another meeting?)<br />Ha, maybe there was. At some point we will do that. Getting along very well. He's not doing nuclear testing."<br /><br />Unlike in the past, a top-down approach is being pursued in a bid to solve the denuclearization issue.<br />And on June 12th last year, the leaders of the long-time foes finally met for their first sitdown in Singapore.<br />There they agreed on the four pillars of establishing their ties and achieving denuclearization.<br /><br />On top of the hard talks,... the two leaders also engaged in various activities that allowed them to get to know each other on a personal level, including a one-on-one sitdown just with their translators, and a leisurely stroll.<br /><br />But things did not go so smoothly after that as the two sides faced the critical issue of who does what first... and in exchange for what.<br />Despite a number of working-level talks after Singapore, their negotiations hit a wall.<br />And the two leaders stepped in, meeting again about eight months later, this time in Hanoi.<br /><br />Both leaders seemed to have thought they could persuade their counterpart into taking the next step in implementing their deal.<br />But neither side budged.<br />Kim was firm on the U.S. lifting sanctions on the North's economy in exchange for the dismantling of the regime's Yeongbyeon nuclear facility.<br />Trump said Yeongbyeon had to be dismantled and the North had to provide an overall and detailed roadmap for denuclearization.<br /><br />Since then no significant talks have been held, at least not publicly.<br /><br />Whether this week's series of summits between Presidents Moon Jae-in, Trump and Xi Jinping can revive the momentum for dialogue remains to be seen.<br />But there are also concerns that working-level talks need to first pave the way in order to prevent the same mistakes made in Hanoi.<br />Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.<br />
