Trump responds to North Korea talks: “The world is watching and waiting”

President Trump says there’s a “serious effort” underway with the North and South Koreans following news that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had met with South Korean envoys Tuesday. South Korea said Tuesday that North Korea had agreed to impose a moratorium on tests of nuclear weapons and missiles if it holds talks with the United States. 

“Possible progress is being made in talks with North Korea,” Mr. Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. He warned, however, that possibility of deescalating tensions between the two Koreas could also be fueling “false hope.”

South Korea’s presidential national security director said Tuesday that North Korea said it’s ready to have “heart-to-heart” talks with the U.S. on issues regarding the North’s potential denuclearization and the normalization of relations between Pyongyang and Washington.

The warming on potential talks comes after Mr. Trump’s demand over the weekend that North Korea it abandon its nuclear program as a precondition for diplomatic negotiations. The North slammed those demands as “preposterous” in a blistering statement. 

“Not being content with it, it insists that it will have dialogue only for making the DPRK abandon nuclear weapons and persist in ‘maximum pressure’ until complete denuclearization is realized. This is really more than ridiculous,” North Korea’s foreign ministry said on Sunday. 

Mr. Trump added his is Thursday tweet that while the “world is watching and waiting” the U.S. is “ready to go hard in either direction” on delivering on talks with the regime. 

CBS News’ Emily Tillett contributed to this report.