Trump says Kim made 'unwavering commitment' to denuclearise, but sanctions on North Korea will remain for now

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said sanctions on North Korea will remain in effect for now despite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's assurance of complete denuclearisation of Korean Peninsula following a historic summit in Singapore.

Speaking at a press conference after the summit and signing of a 4-point declaration at Capella hotel on Singapore's Sentosa island, Trump said that talks with Kim Jong-un were 'honest', 'direct', 'productive'. Trump said both leaders were "prepared to start a new history and write a new chapter between our nations".

"He reaffirmed his unwavering commitment to the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," Trump told a news conference.

Trump said the Korean war which claimed thousands of Americal lives will 'soon end'.

Trump said Kim had "an opportunity like no other", and that Kim had said a North Korean missile testing site "is going to be destroyed very soon".

"Kim Jong-un has the chance to cease a better future for his country. Anyone can make war but only the most courageous can make peace," Trump said.

"Kim told me that we have never gone so far. He said that he never had the confidence in any of the previous Presidents in getting things done. He wanted to do this, even more than me," he said.

Later answering questions to reporters that sanctions will come off when the US is sure that North Korea has destroyed its nuclear weapons.

"The sanctions will come off when we are sure that nuclear missiles are no longer a factor. I am looking forward to taking them off," he added.

Trump also said he would be stopping the "very provocative" and costly "war games", apparently referring to unspecified military exercises, to facilitate denuclearisation negotiations with North Korea.

The United States and its ally South Korea hold regular military exercises to the fury of North Korea, which has long seen the drills as preparations to invade it.

"The war games are very expensive, we pay for the majority of them," Trump told a news conference in Singapore after a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"Under the circumstances, that we're negotiating ... I think it's inappropriate to be having war games."

Trump also said he and Kim had discussed human rights briefly.