Anchor: The U.S. and North Korea continued to hold working-level talks at the truce village of Panmunjeom on Monday to prepare for the upcoming summit in Singapore. 
Our Bae Joo-yon has more. 

Report: The U.S. delegation, led by U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, held talks on Monday morning with the North's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and other North Korean officials at Tongilgak on the northern side of Panmunjeom. 

The talks lasted for about an-hour-and-a-half after starting at around 10 a.m.

The two sides met for the third straight day after North Korean senior official Kim Yong-chol paid a visit to U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House Friday. The two sides also met twice earlier last week in Panmunjeom, making Monday’s meeting the fifth round of talks.

The main topic of the ongoing talks is presumed to be the search for a balance between security guarantees from Washington and concrete, verifiable steps to get rid of nuclear weapons by Pyongyang. 

The two sides are also thought to have discussed a possible declaration of a formal end to the Korean War by the two Koreas and the U.S., after Trump said Friday that the issue will be discussed at his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

There have been indications President Moon Jae-in may join Trump and Kim in Singapore for a possible trilateral declaration of a formal end to the Korean War.  

However, an official of the presidential office in Seoul says the top office has not launched any related preparations and is closely watching negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington. 

The contents of the letter handed to President Trump by Kim Yong-chol still remain undisclosed.  The Seoul presidential official says only that it is not appropriate for the South Korean government to discuss the contents of a private letter between the two leaders.

Also on Monday, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and her U.S. counterpart Mike Pompeo spoke on the phone and discussed the recent developments in preparation for the summit, including the outcome of Kim Yong-chol's meeting with Trump in Washington last week.

The two sides also agreed to continue close cooperation and consultation to seek complete denuclearization of the North and a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.

In a separate development, North Korean state media report Kim Jong Un plans to receive Syrian President Bashar Assad for an upcoming state visit.

The report did not reveal when the visit was planned.  The meeting could add an element of complexity to negotiations with the U.S., since Washington accuses Assad of using chemical weapons on his own people and says North Korea has a history of assisting Assad with weapons programs.  Both leaders are the targets of international sanctions.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.