"Meeting in Singapore with North Korea will hopefully be the start of something big...we will soon see!" he tweeted.

The message came one day after the White House announced that the first US-North Korea summit will start at 9 a.m. (local time) next Tuesday in Singapore.

The US leader earlier called off the meeting, citing the North's "tremendous anger and open hostility" toward the United States, but agreed to look into the possibility of going ahead with the proposed summit after a ranking North Korean official visited him last week with a letter from the North Korean leader.

Trump has said his goal is to get rid of North Korea's nuclear weapons. But in recent comments he has played down expectations that the issue will be settled in one meeting.

North Korea has called for a step-by-step approach through which it would get security guarantees and economic benefits in return. (Yonhap)