US President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on North Korea to abandon its nuclear program, ahead of an expected summit with the North's leader Kim Jong Un.

Earlier, the US leader -- who spent the day in talks with French President Emmanuel Macron -- had described Kim as "very open" and "very honorable" -- his most positive comments yet about a man he once publicly belittled.

But when pressed about what he hoped to gain from Pyongyang, the 71-year-old Republican president was blunt.

"Meetings are being set up, and I want to see denuclearization of North Korea," Trump told reporters.

Asked to explain what he means by denuclearization, Trump replied: "It means they get rid of their nukes -- very simple."

"It would be very easy for me to make a simple deal and claim victory. I don't want to do that. I want them to get rid of their nukes."

While Trump has repeatedly referred to North Korea's denuclearization, Pyongyang however consistently defines the term as "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula" - code for the removal of America's military presence in the South, a condition Washington is unlikely to accept.

Amid preparations for a landmark bilateral US-North Korea summit, which could come in June, Trump had kind words for Kim, whom he once called a "madman" and "little rocket man."

"He really has been very open, I think -- very honorable," Trump told reporters from the White House Oval office, adding that the North Koreans have said they want the meeting between the two leaders "as soon as possible."

He said that "a lot of concessions have already been made" -- while stressing it was not the United States that had given ground.

"We have made no concessions," Trump said.

The talks would come after a year of heightened tensions over Pyongyang's development of nuclear weapons and an intercontinental ballistic missile that has the potential to deliver a nuclear warhead to the continental United States.

Around the end of March or early April, CIA director Mike Pompeo traveled to North Korea and met with Kim to lay the groundwork for negotiations.

And last week, North Korea pledged to halt its nuclear and missile tests ahead of the summit.

But it has not committed to giving up its atomic weapons, which Pyongyang views as a shield against the Western overthrow of its government.

As a prelude for talks with Trump, Kim will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday in the border village of Panmunjom.

Trump reiterated Tuesday that he would walk away from the talks with North Korea if they are not fruitful, saying it is possible that "we're all wasting our time."

"Unlike past administrations, I will leave the table," he said. "But I think we have the chance to do something very special."

Previous inter-Korean summits: Sunshine and scandal
Seoul (AFP) April 24, 2018 - North and South Korea will on Friday hold only their third summit since the end of the Korean War, with Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal and a peace treaty to formally end the conflict on the agenda.

The meeting comes ahead of an expected but unprecedented encounter between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.

Here is a summary of what happened at the two earlier summits, both of them in Pyongyang:

- June 2000 -

The first inter-Korean summit nudged the two Koreas away from Cold War confrontation towards reconciliation and exchange.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il surprised the world with a rare foray into the international spotlight by going to the airport to personally greet the South's president Kim Dae-jung, in emotional scenes broadcast live in the South.

Hundreds of thousands of people, women wearing colourful traditional robes known as hanbok in the South and joseon-ot in the North, men in suits and ties, all waving red and pink paper flowers, lined the streets to give Kim Dae-jung a carefully stage-managed hero's welcome.

"I am happy to see you, I have wanted to for a long time," the visitor told his host.

"We are the same Chosun (Korean) people," said Kim Jong Il.

On a shared limousine ride, Kim Dae-jung later wrote in his memoirs, Kim Jong Il asked him: "Are you scared to come to the North?"

During the three-day visit, the pair signed an accord on reducing tensions and boosting efforts for reunification, including moving towards a permanent peace on the Korean peninsula -- which has remained technically at war since the 1953 ceasefire -- and bringing together divided families.

At a farewell lunch, the two leaders joined hands to sing "Our Wish Is Unification".

The meeting was applauded by world leaders, with the United States hailing a "new day of hope".

But while the summit helped earn Kim Dae-jung a Nobel Peace Prize, it later emerged up to $500 million had been paid secretly to North Korea just before the meeting via the Hyundai business group, with critics denouncing what they called a "cash-for-summit" scandal.

Hyundai had various projects in the North including tours to the scenic Mount Kumgang, but they came to a halt in 2008 when a South Korean tourist was shot dead after stumbling into an off-limits military zone.

The Seoul-invested Kaesong industrial park was shut down in 2016 after the North's fourth nuclear test.

- October 2007 -

The second summit came amid an upbeat mood in six-nation negotiations over North Korea's nuclear disarmament, despite its first nuclear test a year earlier.

In a highly symbolic gesture, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun walked some 30 metres across the heavily fortified border before returning to his motorcade to carry on to Pyongyang.

The frontier "has divided the nation for half a century. It has caused enormous pain to our nation and hampered development," he said in comments televised worldwide.

Roh said later that he was unable to sleep on his first night in Pyongyang as he felt "formidable differences in thought" with the North.

"I was not sure whether we could agree on a single point," he added.

But the two leaders signed a declaration calling for a nuclear-free peninsula and a permanent peace pact between the two Koreas.

"The South and North will not take a hostile stance towards each other and will reduce military tension and resolve issues of conflict through dialogue and negotiation," the declaration said.

They agreed to step up trade, travel and political exchanges, and to hold summits frequently in future.

At the end of the meeting, Kim shook hands and clinked champagne glasses with Roh, who was visibly upbeat and planted a tree before he left Pyongyang.

International reaction was more lukewarm than after the first summit, with the United States saying that Korean peace hinged on the North's agreement to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme.

The South's Sunshine Policy of engaging with the North came to an end when the conservative Lee Myung-bak came to power the following year, and in 2009 the North walked out of the Six-Party Talks before carrying out its second nuclear test.

Kim died in 2011 and was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Un, who oversaw a rapid acceleration in the progress of its nuclear and missile technology -- accompanied by increasingly strong sanctions by the UN Security Council and others -- with tensions mounting until the rapprochement triggered by this year's Winter Olympics in the South.

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