SINGAPORE (AP) – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is urging U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to seize the opportunity “to support a peaceful, prosperous, secure and verifiably denuclearized Korean Peninsula.”
    
The U.N. chief is commending the two leaders for pursuing a diplomatic solution and “seeking to break out of the dangerous cycle that created so much concern last year.”
    
Guterres told reporters Monday ahead of the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore that “peace and verifiable denuclearization must remain the clear and shared goal.”
    
The secretary-general says he wrote to both leaders last month saying “the road ahead will require cooperation, compromise and a common cause.”
    
He says the U.N. system “stands ready to support this process in every way, including verification if requested by both parties.”