US President Donald Trump confirmed he had received a letter from Kim Jong Un and expected to meet with the North Korean leader soon as part of his administration's ongoing efforts to press Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump defended his negotiations with Kim and said he had never emphasised the speed of Pyongyang's efforts.
Kim had vowed to work toward denuclearisation after he met with Trump at a summit in Singapore in June, although both sides have struggled to make progress since then.
On Tuesday, Kim said in a nationally televised address that he was ready to meet again with Trump anytime but warned that he may take a "new path" if US sanctions and pressure against the country continued.
A day earlier, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that Kim had sent a message to Trump regarding the stalled nuclear talks.
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Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the letter was "great" and that he would love to read it out loud, but did not do so.
In his address on Tuesday, Kim said denuclearisation was his "firm will" and North Korea had "declared at home and abroad that we would neither make and test nuclear weapons any longer nor use and proliferate them."
But his warning fuelled doubts over whether North Korea intends to give up a nuclear weapons program it has long considered essential to its security.
Analysts said Kim's message sent clear signals that North Korea was willing to stay in talks with Washington and Seoul this year - but on its own terms.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made several trips to Pyongyang last year but the two sides have yet to reschedule an abruptly cancelled November meeting between him and senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol aimed at paving the way for a second summit.
