South Korea’s foreign minister says North Korea’s leader has “given his word” he is committed to denuclearisation, a prime condition for a potential summit with US president Donald Trump in May.

Mr Trump has agreed to what would be historic talks after South Korean officials relayed that Kim Jong Un was committed to ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons and was willing to halt nuclear and missile tests.

North Korea has not publicly confirmed the summit plans, and a meeting place is not known.

South Korea’s Kang Kyung-wha said Seoul has asked the North “to indicate in clear terms the commitment to denuclearisation” and that Kim had “conveyed that commitment.”

She told American TV network CBS’s Face The Nation that “he’s given his word” and it’s “the first time that the words came directly” from the North’s leader.