The decision to meet drew support from countries seeking to defuse tensions between North Korea and the US, and warnings that Kim may be playing for more time to develop his weapons while seeking relief from US-led international sanctions.
Tillerson has been working the issue during a five-nation swing through sub-Saharan Africa. Dealing with the North Korea issue is one reason he decided yesterday to cut short the trip by a day and return home.
Trump's announcement has raised speculation about whether the meeting will actually go ahead, what North Korea will demand from the US and even where the two leaders might meet.
"Nothing's been agreed and I don't want to start floating ideas out through the media," Tillerson said in Abuja alongside Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama. "I think it's going to be very important that those kind of conversations are held quietly through the two parties."
Among the unverified reports so far is that Kim hopes to sign a peace treaty with Trump - a long-held goal of the North Korean regime. Kim is likely to raise the possibility of such a treaty along with establishing diplomatic relations and moving toward nuclear disarmament, during a meeting with the US leader, the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said, citing an unidentified senior official in South Korea's presidential office.
Koh Yu-hwan, who teaches North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, said the regime has long sought a peace treaty to end the more than 60-year-old ceasefire between the two sides and help guarantee its safety.
"There were agreements between the US and North Korea to open up discussion on a peace treaty, but they never materialised," Koh said, saying the conditions were key. "The US wants a peace treaty at the end of the denuclearisation process, while for the North, it's the precondition for its denuclearisation."
Signing a peace treaty would require addressing issues regarding the US military's presence in South Korea and its transfer of wartime operational control to South Korea and United Nations forces there, Koh said.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has accepted Kim's offer to meet near their shared border later next month, a meeting in which Kim was expected to suggested resuming cultural exchanges and family reunions. That session will provide more insight for the Trump-Kim meeting that South Korean National Security Council chief Chung Eui-yong said will take place by May.
The U.S. and the South Korea are also discussing how to conduct upcoming military drills in a way that won't provoke Kim, whose regime views the exercises as a rehearsal for war. The allies had agreed to delay the drills until after the Winter Paralympics end later this month. The South Koreans who met with Kim said he accepts that the next round of joint exercises will go ahead.
The U.S. is unlikely to deploy an aircraft carrier, which is considered a "strategic asset," during the drills, the Yonhap News Agency reported Monday. The South Korean Defense Ministry declined to comment on the planned drills.
