SEOUL (REUTERS) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un spoke highly of United States President Donald Trump, state media said on Thursday (Jan 24), and expressed satisfaction over the results of talks between officials from both countries about a second summit between the two leaders.

Mr Kim said he would trust Mr Trump's approach, the North's official KCNA news agency said, weeks after Mr Kim warned that North Korea could seek a "new path" if US sanctions and pressure continued. That suggested Mr Kim was focused on the next meeting with Mr Trump to produce results.

"Kim Jong Un said that we will believe in President Trump's positive way of thinking, wait with patience and in good faith and, together with the US, advance step by step toward the goal to be reached by the two countries," KCNA said.

It said Mr Kim expressed "large satisfaction" at receiving a "great" letter from Mr Trump and a briefing about the results of the negotiations from the North Korean delegation that visited Washington last week, but did not elaborate.

Mr Kim ordered working-level preparations for the second North Korea-US summit to be done well, KCNA said. The White House said last week that a second Trump-Kim summit would be held in late February, but did not say where.

That follows their landmark first summit in Singapore last June, which produced a promise to work towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Progress since then has been patchy.

'GROUNDBREAKING' MEASURE

Mr Kim has indicated to South Korean President Moon Jae-in that he would undertake a "groundbreaking" denuclearisation measure, South Korean newspaper DongA Ilbo reported on Thursday.

The newspaper, citing an unidentified source with direct knowledge of the US-North Korea situation, said the same had been made clear to Mr Trump during senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol's Washington visit last week.

North Korea has hinted, for example, at the possibility of agreeing to the US demand for verification of denuclearisation efforts before it discards its Yongbyon nuclear facilities.

In turn, the US has mentioned potential measures such as easing limits on oil imports, a conditional restart of the Kaesong industrial zone in North Korea, and opening a liaison office in Pyongyang, DongA reported.

Under UN sanctions imposed in 2017, up to 500,000 barrels of refined petroleum products per year from all UN member nations are allowed to be supplied, sold or transferred to the North.

DongA also said that, according to several South Korean government sources, talks between officials from North Korea, the US and South Korea near Stockholm this week appeared to have been constructive in setting some of the agenda for the second Trump-Kim summit.

The White House said after Mr Trump met Mr Kim Yong Chol, the North's chief nuclear negotiator, last week that economic sanctions against Pyongyang would be maintained despite agreeing to the second summit.

Mr Trump has said there is "no rush" and "no time limit" on denuclearisation negotiations, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has given varying statements about the degree of Washington's patience.

Mr Pompeo said after the Singapore summit that the US hoped to achieve "major disarmament" by North Korea by the end of Mr Trump's current term in office in January 2021. He has subsequently said he would not put a timeline on talks.

Mr Pompeo said on Tuesday that there remained "an awful lot of work to do" to achieve denuclearisation but he anticipated more progress by the end of February. He also said he saw an important role for the private sector in helping to develop North Korea if substantial steps were made.