June 12 summit: Donald Trump confirms senior North Korean official headed to US

US President Donald Trump has confirmed reports that a senior North Korean official was headed to the United States for talks on an upcoming summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Taking twitter Trump wrote: "We have put a great team together for our talks with North Korea. Meetings are currently taking place concerning Summit, and more. Kim Young Chol, the Vice Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York. Solid response to my letter, thank you!"

Kim is a former military intelligence chief and now a vice chairman of the North Korean ruling party's central committee tasked with inter-Korean relations.

Trump on Friday said his summit with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un could still happen on June 12 after officials on both sides started talking, a day after he cancelled it, citing Pyongyang's "open hostility".

Trump said the lines of communication had opened between the two countries after Trump administration officials yesterday said that the North Koreans had become unresponsive, leading to the planned summit's cancellation.

"We'll see what happens. We are talking to them now," Trump said at the White House before boarding Marine One for a commencement address in Annapolis.

"They very much want to do it. We'd like to do it. We will see what happens," he said.

Trump appeared to be optimistic even about the cancelled June 12 summit in Singapore. "It could be even on 12th June, he said in response to a question. "We will see what happens," said the US President.