North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reached a “satisfactory consensus” with a top US official, North Korean media reported Thursday, prompting speculations that the two countries may be narrowing the gap over denuclearization.

According to Korean Central News Agency, Kim and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed “the acute situation of the Korean Peninsula,” and reached a satisfactory consensus on the issues discussed, without elaborating on the details. 

With the “acute situation” taken as reference to North Korea’s nuclear program, experts believe the US has agreed to accept a large portion of North Korea’s phased approach toward denuclearization.

“If the US aims to achieve North Korea’s denuclearization fundamentally through dialogue, then accepting North Korea’s phased approach toward denuclearization is possibly the most logical way to achieve its goal,” Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told The Korea Herald.

The US has been highlighting its commitment to achieving complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization carried out swiftly, without giving North Korea concessions until the completion of the process.

North Korea, meanwhile, is believed to prefer a phased approach, possibly in the hopes of using certain steps toward denuclearization as bargaining chips for regime survival and formal diplomatic recognition from the US.

“It’s actually the process toward achieving CVID (complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization) that matters the most because CVID is something that could also be achieved through the North’s phased approach. But such an approach is expected to take years to complete, and meanwhile, it could buy time for the North to establish its position as a solid nuclear state while returning to its old ways of provocations,” Go added.

“In the history of nuclear disarmament, nuclear states have never once relinquished their nuclear weapons willingly of their own volition -- it was either brought about as a result of a regime change or other special reasons. This is also a unique situation for the US.”

Another expert interpreted the news as a sign that both sides have found middle ground in the process toward denuclearization.

“It is extremely rare for North Korea to describe outcomes of such diplomatic meeting as ‘satisfactory’ – it means both sides have managed to find middle ground in the denuclearization process,” Hong Min, a senior researcher for the Korean Institute for National Unification.

The KCNA announcement marks the first time the North officially announced the US-North Korea summit to its citizens, with Kim saying his meeting with US President Donald Trump would be “the excellent first step toward promotion of the positive situation development in the Korean peninsula.” Previously, the state media had merely dubbed the new ties between the two nations as “dialogue with the US.”

Experts have said in recent months that North Korea will announce the summit to its people when fully prepared to spin its side of the story on coming to terms with the US, only for the sake of its economic prosperity. It has lambasted the US as an enemy state for years.

Kim recently announced the completion of his signature “byongjin” policy of nuclear and economic development and decided to turn his full attention to recovering the country’s poverty-stricken economy.

Pompeo visited Pyongyang on Wednesday to hammer out details for the upcoming summit, including the date and venue, while working for the release of the three US detainees in the North. The detainees were released and flown back to the US mainland, accompanied by Pompeo.

The detainees were released by a rare amnesty granted by Kim and experts interpreted the unprecedented act of formality as a gesture of goodwill toward the US. North Korea did not formally announce the releases of two American detainees in 2014 and the repatriation of unconscious US student Otto Warmbier in 2017 was carried out “on humanitarian grounds.”

Regarding the date and venue of the summit, US officials are making preparations for a meeting in Singapore between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, according to CNN.

Trump instructed his aides to gear up for his talks with Kim in the Southeast Asian city-state, said CNN, citing “two people familiar with the plans.”

The White House earlier said the date and site for the meeting between the leaders of the two sides had been set. Kim and Trump originally agreed to meet in May, but the meeting may take place in June.

A related announcement is expected in the next few days.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)