"I'd like to meet him this year," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he welcomed South Korea's new president, Lee Jae Myung, to the White House for the first time. "I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong Un in the appropriate future."

Just a few hours before South Korean President Lee Jae Myung was set to enter the White House, a social media post from the US leader threatened to derail the summit.

President Donald Trump is willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, he told his South Korean counterpart on Monday when they discussed peace in the Korean Peninsula and Pyongyang’s nuclear weapon capabilities.