SEOUL, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- The likelihood of a renewed summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has increased, even as Pyongyang presses ahead with nuclear weapons development, a South Korean think tank said Tuesday.
In an annual forecast released by the Foreign Ministry-linked Korea National Diplomatic Academy, analysts said Trump is expected to continue a top-down approach to North Korea under which leader-level talks could resume.
"The likelihood of a North Korea-U.S. summit has increased somewhat due to common ground in the two leaders' desire to hold a summit, pursue peaceful coexistence and lower the priority of the denuclearization issue," the report said.
Trump met Kim three times during his first term -- in Singapore in 2018, in Hanoi in 2019 and briefly at the Demilitarized Zone later that year -- but talks collapsed amid disagreements over sanctions relief and steps toward denuclearization.
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