The president said last week he had narrowed the site for the meeting to just two or three locations. Reports over the weekend, suggested those were Ulan Bator, capital of Mongolia, and Singapore.

But in a tweet on Monday morning, Mr Trump said he would be minded to hold the meeting at the Peace House on the border of North and South Korea, the same place where Mr Kim made history last week when he met with South Korean president Moon Jae-in, shaking hands and laughing, before holding private talks that resulted on a joint declaration from the two countries.

"Numerous countries are being considered for the MEETING, but would Peace House/Freedom House, on the Border of North & South Korea, be a more Representative, Important and Lasting site than a third party country," he wrote. "Just asking!"

In the aftermath of last Friday’s summit during which the 36-year-old became the first North Korean leader to travel south of the border between the two countries, Mr Trump praised the meeting and said he was looking forward to his own.

“I don’t think he’s playing,” Mr Trump said of Mr Kim, speaking to reporters at the beginning of a meeting in the Oval Office with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “We will, I think, come up with a solution and if we don’t we leave the room with great respect and we just keep it going.”

He added: “A lot of very positive things happened over the last 24 hours. We’ll be setting up a meeting very shortly. We have it broken down to probably two sites now, two or three sites, locations. And hopefully we’re going to have great success.”

In an interview broadcast over the weekend, the newly confirmed secretary of state Mike Pompeo, said he told Mr Kim he would have to take “irreversible” steps toward shutting his nuclear weapons programme for their to be any deal with Mr Trump. He also said he believed there is “a real opportunity” to strike such a deal.

Mr Pompeo met secretly with the North Korean leader over Easter in order to prepare the ground for anticipated talks with Mr Trump in May. The meeting was highest level between the two countries since 2000, when then secretary of state Madeleine Albright met Kim Jong-il, Mr Kim’s father, and was the meeting of Mr Kim and any US official.

Mr Pompeo said Washington was not simply going to take Mr Kim at his word.

“We use the word ‘irreversibles with great intention,” Mr Pompeo told ABC News. “We are going to require those steps that demonstrate that denuclearisation is going to be achieved.”

He said his visit to North Korea had been intended to see if there was an opportunity for an historic shift in relations with the nuclear-armed national after decades of hostility.

The Independent

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