Updated May 04, 2018 10:37:28

Expectations have grown that North Korea will soon release three Americans held as prisoners, as a gesture of goodwill ahead of an unprecedented US-North Korea summit due to take place in coming weeks.

Rudy Giuliani, who joined President Donald Trump's legal team last month, told Fox News Channel that Pyongyang would release the three prisoners as early as Thursday.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City, had direct knowledge of negotiations around the issue.

Trump administration officials have pressed for the Americans' release as a show of goodwill by North Korea before the meeting between Mr Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which is expected to take place in late May or early June.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she could not confirm details about the release, but she said Washington was "cautiously optimistic" about its ongoing talks with Pyongyang.

"Certainly, that would be an incredible step and certainly a sign of goodwill moving into the summit, moving into these discussions with North Korea," Ms Huckabee Sanders said in an interview with Fox News.

"I can't comment any further at this point."

The three are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong Chul; Kim Sang-duk, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak Song, who also taught at PUST.

'Stay tuned': Trump

Photo: Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump are due to meet in the coming weeks. (Reuters/AP)

Mr Trump did not mention Korea or the prisoners when he spoke at a prayer event at the White House.

"Our country is doing very well. You'll see some very good announcements very shortly," he said.

Late on Wednesday (local time), Mr Trump said on Twitter: "As everybody is aware, the past Administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from a North Korean Labor camp, but to no avail. Stay tuned!"

The joint declaration between North and South Korea is remarkable, but how will an agreement be enforced?

The US Government is looking into reports that the Americans had recently been relocated from a labour camp to a hotel near Pyongyang, a US official said on Wednesday.

CNN, citing an unnamed source, said the prisoners' release was imminent, adding the groundwork for the move was laid two months ago when North Korea's Foreign Minister travelled to Sweden and proposed the idea.

In preparing for the summit with Mr Kim, Mr Trump's administration has said it wants North Korea's "complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearisation", but has offered few details of the strategy it will employ at the talks.

Mr Kim told the Chinese Government's top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, on Thursday that he is committed to denuclearisation, China's Foreign Ministry said, as diplomatic efforts to bring lasting peace to the Korean Peninsula gather pace.

"Kim Jong-un said achieving the denuclearisation of the peninsula is the firm position of the North Korean side," China's Foreign Ministry said after Mr Wang met Mr Kim in Pyongyang.

US Vice-President Mike Pence is postponing his plans to travel to Brazil this month in order to ensure foreign policy resources are focused on Mr Trump's talks with Mr Kim, Mr Pence's spokeswoman said.

Reuters

Topics: world-politics, foreign-affairs, prisons-and-punishment, united-states, korea-democratic-peoples-republic-of, asia

First posted May 04, 2018 05:35:37