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US military drills have often coincided with North Korean missile tests.
Kim and South Korean leader Moon Jae-in will also hold a summit, the first meeting between the leaders of the two countries in ten years, next month.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has agreed to give up his nuclear arsenal in return for a security guarantee from the United States.
Photo: APThe summit will be held in Peace House on the South Korean side of the border at Panmunjeom.
No North Korean leader has stepped foot in the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
The diplomatic breakthrough came after Moon’s special envoy returned from a two-day visit to Pyongyang, where he had dined with Kim and his family.
The visit was held in the wake of the high-profile Winter Olympic diplomacy between the Koreas.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in (left) shakes hands with North Korean official Ri Son-gwon as Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Yo-jong (right) looks on at a February meeting. The two Koreas have held unprecedented diplomatic talks.
Photo: AP“The North side clearly affirmed its commitment to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and said it would have no reason to possess nuclear weapons should the safety of its regime be
guaranteed and military threats against North Korea removed,” said the envoy, Chung Eui-yong.
He said Kim had said denuclearisation could be discussed in negotiations between North Korea and the United States.
President of the Eurasia Group Ian Bremmer commented on Twitter that he didn’t believe North Korea would ever denuclearise, but North Korea had reason to engage in talks to reduce the prospects of war.
United Nations Security Council sanctions imposed in the wake of North Korea’s sixth nuclear test last year, and a dozen missile launches, have ratcheted up economic pressure on the country, cutting the flow of foreign cash to the regime.
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The US last week imposed harsh unilateral sanctions on multiple shipping companies dealing with North Korea.
But as the US has kept the pressure on North Korea and maintained the barely veiled threat of military action, Moon has stepped up personal diplomacy.
Dongguk University’s Koh Yu-hwan told the Korea Herald that the summit between the two Koreas showed “they are determined to take a lead in resolving the nuclear stand off on the Korean Peninsula”.
Although North Korea appeared to have agreed to the US precondition for talks, he said “North Korea left room for interpretation by saying that it would give up its nuclear weapons once the regime’s survival is guaranteed.”
Adam Mount, director of the Defence Posture Project in Washington, told CNN the offer from North Korea was “dramatic” and “exceeds what we expected”.
But he warned complete denuclearisation was “a heavy lift” involving intensive weapons inspections inside North Korea and he was sceptical of this outcome.
He said the next step for the US and South Korea was to coordinate a negotiating position.
Kirsty Needham is China Correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
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