The President of United States (U.S.) has extended an invitation to the Supreme Leader of North Korea – Kim Jong-un for a meeting at Panmunjom, the ‘truce village’ on the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which separates North and South Korea.
The President of United States (U.S.) has extended an invitation to the Supreme Leader of North Korea – Kim Jong-un for a meeting at Panmunjom, the ‘truce village’ on the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which separates North and South Korea.
Extending the invitation via twitter, Donald Trump tweeted, “After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!” He further said, “All I did was put out a feeler if he’d like to meet.”
Trump would be reaching Seoul, South Korea, today evening, i.e., Saturday, June 29, 2019. He would be holding talks with the President of South Korea – Moon Jae-in on Korean denuclearisation deal. He is travelling to Seoul from Osaka in Japan where he attended the G20 Summit. Post this, Trump to return to Washington on Sunday evening, i.e., June 30, 2019.
While addressing the media at the G20 Summit, Trump said, “If he’s there, we’ll see each other for two minutes and that’s fine.”
Reacting to Trump’s tweet, the First Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, North Korea – Choe Son-hui, said in a statement, “We see it as a very interesting suggestion, but we have not received an official proposal in this regard. It would serve as another meaningful occasion in further deepening the personal relations between the two leaders and advancing the bilateral relations.”
If Trump and Kim end-up meeting at DMZ, it would be their 3rd meeting after the failed talks at Hanoi in Vietnam in February 2019 and a meeting during a Summit in Singapore in June 2018. Trump had earlier also tried to meet Kim at DMZ in November 2017, but the meeting was called off due to bad weather.
Trump wants North Korea to dismantle its nuclear arsenal before economic sanctions can be lifted. Meanwhile, North Korea has been testing several short-range missiles after the failed talks at Hanoi.
Given the short deadline of Trump’s tweet, the chances of Trump meeting Kim are relatively low. All the other previous meetings were planned well in advance. However, the U.S.’s special envoy on North Korea – Stephen Biegun, has been in Seoul recently for preparatory talks. For the records, Moon was the first mediator who initiated discussions between U.S. and North Korea.
It is also noteworthy that Trump wants to settle the dispute with North Korea as he intends to showcase the progress made by his Government, in his Presidential poll campaign for 2020.
