US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said preparations for talks with North Korea are "moving in the right direction" but that there is "a great deal of work to do".
He was speaking after talks with one of Kim Jong-un's most high-profile aides, Gen Kim Yong-chol, in New York.
Gen Kim will now travel to Washington to deliver a letter from Kim Jong-un to President Donald Trump, he said.
Mr Trump has also downplayed hopes of reaching a quick deal with Mr Kim.
He said while he would "like to see it done in one meeting... often times that's not the way deals work".
"But it'll get done at some point."
Separately, the North Korean leader has agreed to hold a summit with Russia, after a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
North Korean and US officials have been working to get the 12 June Singapore summit back on track after the US leader, angered by North Korean rhetoric, announced last week he was no longer attending.
If it does go ahead, it will be the first time a sitting US president has met a North Korean leader. Pyongyang has long wanted such a meeting, which it would see as validating its status.
The talks will focus on North Korea's announcement earlier this year that it is committed to "denuclearisation" - but there is as yet no agreement between the two sides about what that might mean and how it would be achieved.
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