North Korea and US show signs of resuming dialogue, South Korean lawmaker says

North Korea and the ​United States are showing signs of ‌resuming ​dialogue, a South Korean lawmaker said on Tuesday after being briefed by Seoul's intelligence agency.

There had, however, been no confirmation ‌of specific contacts between Pyongyang and Washington, he told a televised briefing. "Regarding a North Korea-U.S. summit, there was an assessment that talks could be possible at anytime," lawmaker Youn Kun-young told reporters.

U.S. ‌President Donald Trump said last month he planned to meet with North Korean ‌leader Kim Jong Un later this year after he ordered a major scaling back of annual military exercises between the United States and South Korea. The two met three times in 2018 and 2019.

Youn also ⁠told ​reporters that Seoul's ⁠National Intelligence Service (NIS) believed that North Korea was continuing to take steps to position Kim Jong Un's daughter, ⁠known as Ju Ae, as his successor. "The reason why she is showing up in the state ​media frequently is she is seen as being in the process of being appointed ⁠as successor," the lawmaker said.

The NIS assessed there was a "very low possibility" currently that Pyongyang would deploy ⁠additional ​troops to Ukraine, he said. North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, has denied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's claim that Pyongyang planned to send up ⁠to 50,000 more troops to Russia to fight for its ally.

The NIS had also obtained ⁠a blueprint of ⁠a North Korean missile as well as an internal document on Pyongyang's ruling party, Yoo Yeong-ha, another lawmaker briefed by the NIS, ‌told reporters without ‌elaborating.