“North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, told President Moon Jae-in of South Korea when they met that he would abandon his nuclear weapons if the United States would agree to formally end the Korean War and promise that it would not invade his country,” the New York Times reports.

“In a faith-building gesture ahead of a summit meeting with President Trump, Mr. Kim also said he would invite experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States to watch the shutdown next month of his country’s only known underground nuclear test site.”

Jonathan Swan: “He came into office thinking he could be the historic deal maker to bring peace to the Middle East. He’s stopped talking about that. There’s very little point. The peace deal looks dead and cremated. But Trump wants to sign his name even larger into the history books, and he views North Korea as his moment.”

“Sources close to him say he genuinely believes he — and he alone — can overcome the seemingly intractable disaster on the Korean Peninsula.”

Said a source who has discussed North Korea with Trump: “He thinks, ‘Just get me in the room with the guy and I’ll figure it out.'”

President Trump “set wildly opposite expectations in one sentence for his possible summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, including that it could never happen,” Roll Call reports.

He first said his one-on-one meeting with Kim could happen “very soon,” before saying he expects negotiations will allow an “early June” summit to take place. But the president then moved up the possible date to “before that” before backpedaling.

Said Trump: “It’s possible things won’t go well and we won’t have the meetings and we’ll just continue to go on this very strong path we have taken.”

“North Korea’s government has communicated with the United States to say that leader Kim Jong Un is ready to discuss his nuclear weapons program with President Trump, officials said Sunday, increasing the likelihood that the unprecedented summit will actually occur,” the AP reports.

“The confirmation from Pyongyang directly, rather than from third countries like South Korea, has created more confidence within Trump’s administration about the wisdom of holding such a meeting, as U.S. officials make secretive preparations.”

“It’s like Richard Nixon going to China, but if Nixon were a moron.”

— Jeffrey Lewis, writing in Foreign Policy, about the promised meeting between President Trump and Kim Jung Un.

“Kim Jong Un made a surprise visit to Beijing on his first known trip outside North Korea since taking power in 2011,” Bloomberg reports.

“The unannounced visit is the latest in series of diplomatic power plays in Asia as U.S. President Donald Trump’s battle to lower the U.S.’s trade deficit becomes entangled with his effort to get Kim to give up his nuclear weapons.”

New York Times: “At the State Department, where some diplomats quietly applauded Mr. Trump’s gamble, there was a fear that more hawkish aides in the White House might throw up further hurdles to the meeting. The White House, they said, has invested more in sanctions and military options than in diplomacy. Officials there have in the past expressed frustration about what they viewed as the Pentagon’s reluctance to provide options for a military strike on the North.”

“With all the potential traps and internal misgivings, some officials said they believed the chances of a meeting between the two leaders actually happening were less than 50 percent.”

“Mr. Trump’s decision stunned allies and his own advisers, not least Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, who was caught unaware while traveling in Africa when the president accepted Mr. Kim’s invitation.”

The White Hous”e on Friday appeared to set tougher conditions for a meeting between President Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, saying that the North must take ‘concrete steps’ toward denuclearizing,” Politico reports.

“The White House also seemed to back away from the two-month timeframe laid out by South Korean officials on Thursday evening during a highly unusual press announcement in the White House driveway.”

First Read: “The North Korea talks mean that Trump has to keep National Security Adviser HR McMaster, right? MSNBC reported that the White House has been preparing to replace McMaster as early as in April. Well, it would be VERY hard to do that now. Also, there is no ambassador to South Korea or any real North Korean experts working inside the White House. Who on Trump’s team has experience in knowing how to deal with North Korea and Kim Jong Un?”

Victor Cha: “Finally, everyone should be aware that this dramatic act of diplomacy by these two unusual leaders, who love flair and drama, may also take us closer to war. Failed negotiations at the summit level leave all parties with no other recourse for diplomacy. In which case, as Mr. Trump has said, we really will have ‘run out of road’ on North Korea.”

Financial Times: “On the surface, it is a win-win situation for all leaders. Mr. Trump demonstrates that his signature foreign policy initiative is making headway. Mr. Kim garners domestic prestige and the international spotlight from meeting a U.S. president for the first time. [South Korean President Moon Jae-in] reaps the rewards of successful diplomacy and the benefits of reduced tension on the Korean peninsula, which months ago appeared close to conflict. Trouble may arise later, however, if talks begin to flounder.”

“Likelihood of success: For Mr. Kim, simply hosting the meeting will count as a success as it will generate prestige and legitimacy for the reclusive regime. For the U.S. leader, the equation is more complex. Experts are skeptical that Pyongyang will genuinely give up its nuclear programme, which it views as a deterrent to US aggression.”

“The regime may promise to do so but history shows it has a poor record of upholding such pledges.”

Playbook: “This isn’t like guns or health care or immigration, where Trump can say one thing, believe another and let the issue fade to the background. This is a rogue nuclear state. The entire planet will be watching these talks. The stakes couldn’t be higher.”

“North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has told South Korean envoys that his country is willing to begin negotiations with the United States on abandoning its nuclear weapons and that it would suspend all nuclear and missile tests while it is engaged in such talks,” the New York Times reports.

“During the envoys’ two-day visit to Pyongyang, the North’s capital, which ended on Tuesday, the two Koreas also agreed to hold a summit meeting between Mr. Kim and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea on the countries’ border in late April.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told CNN that a war with North Korea would be “worth it” in the long term.

Said Graham: “All the damage that would come from a war would be worth it in terms of long-term stability and national security.”

The North Korean delegation to the Winter Olympics told South Korea that Pyongyang was “willing to have talks” with the United States, the Washington Post reports.

“The statement did not make any mention of North Korea’s nuclear program or whether the dialogue would be about denuclearization. But still, this is the first sign of willingness from North Korea in years, and it comes when the Trump administration has been signaling an openness to talk without preconditions.”