ISTANBUL 

The “key” to a meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “lies in the determination” of Trump, a top South Korean official said Tuesday.

“Based on the analysis of open information and data, both the US and North Korean leaders appear ready (for talks),” the Yonhap news agency quoted South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young as saying.

Kim's remarks about having "good memories" of meeting Trump during the latter’s first term in the White House “indicate he is conditionally willing to meet him,” said the minister.

“Now, the key lies in the determination of President Trump," Chung added.

Last month, Kim stated that North Korea’s nuclear status was “irreversible,” while also expressing openness to talks if the US drops its demand for the country’s denuclearization.

Kim and Trump met three times between 2018 and 2019 — in Singapore, Vietnam and at Panmunjom, the inter-Korean village located across the dividing line — where Trump became the first sitting US president to step into North Korean territory across the Demilitarized Zone.

Chung suggested Panmunjom as a possible venue for any future meeting.

Trump is expected to visit South Korea in late October to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Partnership summit, set to be held in the southeastern city of Gyeongju.

North Korea remains one of the most heavily sanctioned nations since it conducted its first nuclear tests in 2006.

The rival Koreas technically remain in a state of war since the 1950s, as the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Bilateral ties between Seoul and Pyongyang have deteriorated in recent years, prompting several initiatives by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s administration, since his election in June, to restore inter-Korean communication.

The latest data from the Export-Import Bank of Korea shows North Korea owes 885.3 billion Korean won ($620.2 million) in unpaid loans to South Korea.

The bank has sent nearly 100 reminders to Pyongyang since June 2012, but to no avail, according to the daily Chosun Ilbo.