kim and trump
President Trump (L) and Marshal of the Republic Kim Jong Un (R)
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday expressed his willingness to "shake hands" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone on the border of the two Koreas, eliciting a positive response from Pyongyang.

"We may be meeting Chairman Kim," Trump said at a press conference before heading to South Korea after the Group of 20 summit in Osaka. "Kim Jong Un was very receptive and he responded, so we'll see."

If his third face-to-face contact with Kim is realized, it would be a casual meeting rather than a formal summit, Trump suggested, but he added he is still not sure whether the meeting will take place.

Trump also said he would feel "very comfortable" stepping into North Korea by crossing the DMZ if he meets with Kim.

Earlier in the day Trump said in a Twitter post, "While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!"

North Korea quickly responded to Trump's offer, with the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoting a diplomat as saying that although no official proposal has been received, the U.S. president made a "very interesting suggestion."

Trump, who is slated to hold talks with President Moon Jae In in Seoul on Sunday and likely visit the DMZ, said Pyongyang reacted "very favorably."

Trump's DMZ visit would most likely take place at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjeom, where Moon and Kim met for talks twice last year.

At the outset of talks with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman on Saturday morning in Osaka, Trump, confirming that he plans to visit the DMZ, said that if Kim comes, "We'll see each other for two minutes. That's all we can. But that will be fine."

"It's good to get along. Because frankly if I didn't become president, we'd be right now in a war with North Korea. You'd be having a war, right now, with North Korea. And by the way, that's a certainty. That's not like, maybe."

Later in the day, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said that if Trump and Kim really meet at the DMZ, "it would serve as another meaningful occasion in further deepening the personal relations between the two leaders and advancing the bilateral relations."

But North Korea has "not received an official proposal in this regard," said the diplomat in charge of Pyongyang's diplomacy with Washington in an English statement carried by KCNA.

South Korea's presidential office, meanwhile, said Saturday no arrangements have been made for a meeting between Trump and Kim.