TRUMP ENTERS N KOREA
WITH grins and handshakes, President Donald Trump welcomed North Korea’s Kim Jong-un at the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone yesterday, seeking to revive talks on the pariah nation’s nuclear program in a bid for a legacydefining accord.
Mr Trump then became the first sitting American leader to step into North Korea.
The photo-op, another historic first in the year-long rapprochement between the two technically warring nations, marks a return to faceto-face contact between the leaders since talks broke down during a summit in Vietnam in February.
But it does little to erase significant doubts that remain about the future of the negotiations and the North’s willingness to give up its stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Mr Trump’s brief crossing into North Korean territory marked the latest milestone in two years of rollercoaster diplomacy between the two nations, as personal taunts of “little rocket man” and threats to destroy the other have been ushered out by on-again, offagain talks, professions of love and flowery letters.
“I was proud to step over the line,” Mr Trump told Mr Kim as they met in a building known as ‘Freedom House’ on the South Korean side of the village. “It is a great day for the world.”
Mr Kim hailed the moment, saying of Mr Trump, “I believe this is an expression of his willingness to eliminate all the unfortunate past and open a new future.” He added that he was “surprised” when Mr Trump invited to meet by a tweet on Saturday.
Peering into North Korea from atop Observation Post Ouellette, Mr Trump told reporters before meeting Mr Kim that there has been “tremendous” improvement since his first meeting with the North’s leader in Singapore last year.
Mr Trump claimed the situation used to be marked by “tremendous danger” but “after our first summit, all of the danger went away.” But North has yet to provide an account of its nuclear stockpile, let alone begin the process of dismantling its arsenal.
The meeting at the truce city of Panmunjom also represented a striking acknowledgment by Mr Trump of the authoritarian Kim’s legitimacy over a nation with an abysmal human rights record.
As he stood beside Mr Kim, Mr Trump said he would invite the North Korean leader to the US, potentially even to the White House.
“I would invite him right now,” Mr Trump said. Mr Kim, speaking through a translator,