The leaders of North and South Korea have agreed to hold a summit at a village on the border between the two countries on 27 April, only the third-ever such meeting and another sign of a thaw in relations.

Senior officials of the two Koreas met on Thursday to prepare for a rare inter-Korean summit, days after the nuclear-armed North’s leader Kim Jong-un made his international debut with a surprise trip to China.

Kim is due to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in late April at the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone, followed by landmark talks with US President Donald Trump which could come as early as May.

At the Unification Pavilion on Panmunjom’s northern side, the leader of Pyongyang’s delegation Ri Son Gwon said Thursday’s talks were aimed at paving the way for a meeting between the leaders of North and South – the first direct public reference to a summit by any Northern official or media outlet.

The rapid rapprochement on the peninsula was kicked off by the Winter Olympics in the South and comes after a year of heightened tensions over the North’s nuclear and missile programmes, which saw Kim and Trump engage in a fiery war of words.

Events have moved quickly since then, with a flurry of official visits between the Koreas and an advance team of Southern performers heading north on Thursday before K-pop concerts in Pyongyang.

Analysts say the success of an inter-Korean summit will depend on the likelihood of talks between North Korea and the US. No date has been set for a meeting between Trump and Kim.

For North Korea, diplomacy towards the south is a route to talks with the US, and part of a long-term effort to lower economic sanctions levied on the country, according to Christopher Green, senior adviser for the Korean peninsula for Crisis Group, a conflict-prevention organisation.

“If there is reasonable chance of talks with the US going ahead, that will help the inter-Korean summit go well because the North Korean side will want to show a convivial side,” Green said.