BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he expected his second meeting with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), to take place in the "not-too-distant future."
Trump told reporters on Wednesday at the White House during a Cabinet meeting that he has received a "great" letter from Kim.
"We'll probably now have another meeting ... we'll be setting that up in the not-too-distant future," added Trump, who revealed in early December that his second meeting with Kim was likely to happen in January or February.
Trump's words came one day after Pyongyang released a series of positive signals over the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Kim said on Tuesday in his New Year speech that he would push forward the denuclearization and was ready to meet with Trump at any time.
"I am always ready to sit down again with the U.S. president at any time and will make efforts to produce an outcome that the international community would welcome," Kim said.
He stressed his determination to work to build new relations with the United States, establish lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and seek "complete denuclearization," on the condition that the United States takes corresponding measures.
"We could be left with no choice but to seek a new way if the U.S. does not make good on its promises, misjudges our patience, while seeking to force things unilaterally and clinging to sanctions and pressure," Kim warned.
The relations between the DPRK and the United States improved last year. The first-ever summit between Trump and Kim was held in Singapore in June. Meanwhile, differences between the two sides remained over key issues like the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions, and whether to issue a war-ending declaration.
Analysts said the primary reason for the stalemate in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is lack of mutual trust between the DPRK and the United States.
The United States remains skeptical about the DPRK's willingness to abandon its nuclear weapons and refused to relax its sanctions on the DPRK, which delayed the DPRK's next moves, they said.
To break the stalemate, the two sides need to meet each other halfway in the new year and take decisive measures to bring the denuclearization cause back on the right track, they added.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang said on Wednesday that China hopes that the DPRK and the United States would respect and accommodate each other's reasonable concerns to achieve progress in the denuclearization of and establishing a peace mechanism on the Korean Peninsula in the new year.
Lu made the comments at a routine press conference when responding to a reporter's question on the New Year's speech made by Kim.
"China will continue to play its role in this regard," Lu said.
