Trump floats DMZ as site for meeting North Korea’s Kim

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday suggested holding his upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the truce village in the Demilitarised Zone — the same venue that hosted the Korean peace talks last week.

“Numerous countries are being considered for the MEETING, but would Peace House/ Freedom House, on the Border of North & South Korea, be a more Representative, Important and Lasting site than a third party country? Just asking!” Trump tweeted.

This was the heaviest hint that Trump has dropped about the possible location for his planned face-to-face with Kim, slated for May or early June.

The historical Peace House had hosted the signing of the armistice that ended the Korean war in 1953. The three-story building is located along the 38th parallel that divides the Korean Peninsula, and it is controlled by the United Nations.

Various sites and location are being considered for the meeting, and the search has become a subject of speculation across the world. At one stage, Trump himself indicated five locations were being considered, and then, that two or three had been shortlisted.

Other sites under consideration include Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar and Singapore, according to officials of a country involved in the search but who would not be identified. But they hastened to add that these BEIJING: China’s foreign minister will visit North Korea this week, his office said on Monday, becoming the highestranking Chinese official to travel there in years as Beijing moves to further improve ties with Pyongyang.

The Chinese foreign ministry said in a brief statement that Wang Yi will visit North Korea on Wednesday and Thursday at the invitation of his North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong Ho.

Wang will be the first Chinese foreign minister to visit the North since 2007, a lapse that highlights the rough patch that relations between the allies have gone through in recent years.

locations are pure speculations at present, and that a decision had not been taken.

On Friday, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in had held talks at the Peace House, in which they pledged to work for the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”. According to Seoul, Kim told Moon that he would shut down his country’s nuclear testing site and allow foreign experts and journalists to watch the process.