US officials are being quoted in Reuters as saying that North Korea his directly informed the United States that they are willing to discuss denuclearization during the upcoming summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un.
This has been reported as North Korea’s position before, with both South Korean and Chinese officials having reported that they’d been assured of this. The direct communication with the US is a positive sign, particularly since the US and North Korea don’t have any formal ties.
Reportedly, this was through the New York channel, where the US and North Korea conduct secretive diplomatic contacts through the North Korean mission to the United Nations. The denuclearization message was said to have been delivered in one such meeting.
2017 marked a year of ever-worsening hostilities between the US and North Korea, but diplomacy has really taken hold in 2018. North Korean talks with South Korea, and the Winter Olympics, have given way to agreements for high-profile summits between Kim and both US and South Korean leaders, as well as an impromptu Kim visit to China, his first overseas visit since taking power.