Trump’s war zone visit axed
PRESIDENT Donald Trump delivered a sharp warning to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un yesterday, telling him the weapons he’s acquiring “are not making you safer. They are putting your regime in grave danger”.
In a speech delivered hours after he aborted a visit to the heavily fortified Korean demilitarized zone due to bad weather, Mr Trump called on all nations to join forces “to isolate the brutal regime of North Korea - to deny it any form of support, supply, or acceptance”.
“Today, I hope I speak not only for our countries, but for all civilized nations, when I say to the North: Do not underestimate us. And do not try us,” he told South Korean lawmakers.
“We will defend our common security, our shared prosperity, and our sacred liberty.” Mr Trump had been scheduled to make the unannounced early morning trip to the DMZ amid heightened tensions with North Korea over its nuclear program.
The Marine One presidential helicopter left Seoul at daybreak and flew most of the way to the DMZ but was forced to turn back just five minutes out due to poor weather conditions.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president was disappointed he couldn’t make the trip. “I think he’s pretty frustrated,” she said. “It was obviously something he wanted to do.”
Before he left for Asia, a White House official had ruled out a DMZ visit for Mr Trump, claiming the president didn’t have time on his schedule and that DMZ visits have become a little cliche. But Ms Sanders said the visit had been planned well before Trump’s departure for Asia and had been kept secret for security reasons. Mr Trump had been scheduled to make the visit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who traveled separately and landed about a 20-minute drive from the DMZ.
The aborted visit came hours before Mr Trump addressed the South Korean National Assembly before closing out his two-day visit to the nation and heading to his next stop, Beijing.
Visiting the border that has separated the North and South for 64 years has become something of a ritual for US presidents trying to demonstrate their resolve against North Korea’s ever-escalating aggression.