"I also look forward to meeting with Chairman Kim who realizes so well that North Korea possesses great economic potential!" Trump said in a brief tweet.

The US leader made his comment after citing news coverage of Kim's New Year remark that the North had declared it would neither make nor test nuclear weapons any longer, or proliferate them.

At a summit with Trump in Singapore in June, the two signed a vaguely worded pledge on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

But progress has since stalled with Pyongyang and Washington arguing over what that means.

Trump has previously said that he hoped to have a second meeting with Kim early this year.

But the North is demanding relief from the multiple sanctions over its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, and has condemned US insistence on its nuclear disarmament as "gangster-like."

Kim, in his New Year speech, said that if the US continues with sanctions "we may be compelled to find a new way for defending the sovereignty of the country and the supreme interests of the state."

He added he was willing to meet Trump at any time and would seek "to obtain without fail results which can be welcomed by the international community."