US President Donald Trump said he will consider inviting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the White House if their planned summit goes well.
Mr Trump made the announcement following a meeting with Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday.
He also signalled that he was willing to walk away if he thought talks did not go well.
Speaking at a White House conference, the president said that it was possible he and Kim could sign an agreement to end the Korean War.
"We could sign an agreement, as you know that would be a first step ... We're looking at it, we're talking about it with a lot of other people," Mr Trump told reporters. "That's probably the easy part. The hard part remains after that."
He added that he hoped someday US relations with Kim's Pyongyang government could be normalised.
The June 12 summit in Singapore will focus on the US demand for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.
Mr Trump said he would quit the talks if he felt he must, and would ramp up US sanctions on North Korea if the talks did not go well.
Earlier, he told reporters that it was essential that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons.
"If they don't denuclearise, that will not be acceptable," he said.
"I am totally prepared to walk away," he later said at the news conference.
However, Mr Trump said he might extend an invitation to Kim to Washington.
"Certainly if it goes well. I think it would be well received," he said in answer to a question. "I think he would look at it very favourably so I think that could happen."
Mr Trump also pledged to bring up the subject of Japanese abductees with Kim, after Abe focused on the issue during their earlier conversation.
"He talked about it long and hard and passionately and I will follow his wishes and we will be discussing that with North Korea absolutely, absolutely," Mr Trump said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press.
