North and South Korean officials held high-level talks on Friday as part of ongoing efforts to improve ties in anticipation of the landmark meeting between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. They agreed to hold military and Red Cross talks later this month on reducing tensions and resuming reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. They also agreed at a meeting at the border village of Panmunjom to establish a liaison office at the North Korean border town of Kaesong and hold sports talks on fielding combined teams for some sports at the Asian Games in August, as they continue to take steps toward reconciliation. South Koreas Unification Ministry said the Koreas agreed to set up the liaison office at a factory park in Kaesong that had been jointly operated by the countries until the South shut it down in February 2016 after a North Korean nuclear test. The Koreas agreed to hold the military talks at Panmunjom on June 14 and the Red Cross talks on June 22 at the Norths Diamond Mountain resort. Trump is meanwhile set to receive a letter from Kim ahead of their June 12 meeting. Kims right-hand man, Kim Yong Chol, was due in Washington a day after talks in New York with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made what the US diplomat called "real progress" towards holding the planned summit. Simultaneously, Kim met Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Pyongyang and said the Norths "will for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula still remains unchanged and consistent and fixed", the state-run KCNA news agency said. It is still far from clear that North Koreas vision of "denuclearization" in exchange for security guarantees and sanctions relief will prove compatible with Washingtons demand for a "complete, verifiable and irreversible" end to its nuclear program. Many expert observers expect Kim, perhaps with tacit Chinese backing, to demand that Washington also reduce its own military footprint in South Korea and loosen its guarantees to treaty ally Japan. But Pompeo suggested things are moving in the right direction. "It will take bold leadership from Chairman Kim Jong Un if we were able to seize this once in a lifetime opportunity to change the course for the world," he said. "President Trump and I believe Chairman Kim is the kind of leader who can make those kind of decisions, and in the coming weeks and months, we will have the opportunity to test whether or not this is the case." US officials now expect the summit to go ahead, but they want Pyongyang to accept that nuclear disarmament be at the heart of the discussion -- and warn there can be no end to trade sanctions without it. Asked whether the answer would come on Friday in the letter, Pompeo said he did not know but added "we have made real progress in the last 72 hours toward setting the conditions." "The conditions are putting President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un in a place where we think there could be real progress made by the two of them meeting," he said. Earlier, in Washington, Trump had said he was "looking forward" to reading the letter. On his visit to Pyongyang, Lavrov warned against setting expectations too high, urging all sides to "avoid the temptation to demand everything and now." The minister passed on greetings from President Vladimir Putin to Kim and invited him to visit Russia, the Russian foreign ministry said. Russia is the latest major nation to reach out to North Korea since Trump accepted Kims proposal for a summit. Kim has already had two meetings each with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae In.