Kim Jong Un offers to halt nuke tests in exchange for U.S. talks

North Korea is offering a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests in return for talks with U.S., a top South Korean official said Tuesday.

The potential opening comes after a delegation from Seoul held their first ever face-to-face meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Monday.

Speaking in Seoul on his return from Pyongyang, national security director Chung Eui-yong claimed North Korea is open to “heart-to-heart” talks with the United States, “in an open-ended dialogue to discuss the issue of denuclearization and to normalize relations.”

Chung also announced the two Koreas had agreed to hold the first summit between the countries’ leaders in more than a decade, which will be held on the southern side of the demilitarized zone in April.

The last summit took place in 2007, when South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun met Kim's father, Kim Jong Il.

Chung said North Korea had made clear during talks that it wouldn’t need nukes if the military threats against it were resolved and its security was assured. Pyongyang had agreed to stop conducting nuclear and missile tests while it was engaging in talks with South Korea, and promised not to use weapons, conventional or nuclear, against the South, he said.

The two countries also agreed to open a telephone hotline between their leaders, Chung said.

The announcement came after an unprecedented face-to-face meeting in Pyongyang between Kim Jong Un and senior South Korean officials, in which the delegations sat down for dinner together amid an atmosphere described by North Korean state media as “compatriotic and sincere.”

State media released photographs showing Kim and his sister Kim Yo Jong smiling and laughing as they hosted the high-powered South Korean delegation, with Kim’s wife Ri Sol Ju also present. The meeting took place following an invitation delivered by Kim Yo Jong during her visit south for the Winter Olympics, part of a wave of recent moves towards rapprochement.

Other than maverick former NBA player Dennis Rodman and a former Chinese official, the South Korean delegation were believed to be the first non-North Koreans Kim had met with since he assumed power in 2011, CNN reported.

North Korean state media reported that, following the meeting, Kim had said it was his “firm will to vigorously advance” the relationship between the Koreas and pursue reunification. It reported the two sides had “made a satisfactory agreement,” but did not provide details on what that entailed.

In comments to students at a military academy following the delegation’s return Tuesday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said his government was looking to strengthen its defense capability, at the same time as it sought to cultivate better relations with the North.

“We have started our journey for peace and prosperity with confidence that we can build denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula with our own strength,” he said. “But at the same time, we have to do our best to build countermeasure capability for North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles.”

North Korea has repeatedly dangled the promise of freezing its nuclear and missiles programs in the past, but has ultimately continued to develop its capabilities, fueling growing tensions with the United States. Last year, one of its diplomats said it was willing to freeze missile tests in exchange for the U.S. cancelling joint military exercises with the South.

U.S. president Donald Trump posted his reaction to news Tuesday, saying "we will see what happens."

Chung is expected to visit Washington later this week to brief U.S. officials on their talks in the North. U.S. President Donald Trump has previously said that talks with Pyongyang will happen only “under the right conditions.”

Chung Eui-Yong (4th R), head of the presidential National Security Office talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (5th R) during their dinner on March 5, 2018 in Pyongyang, North Korea. (South Korean Presidential Blue House via Getty Images)