Trump floats DMZ as location for NKorea meeting

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday floated the idea of holding his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Koreas.

That’s where South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Kim on Friday, the first time a North Korean leader has visited south of the demarcation line that divides the rival nations.

“There’s something that I like about it because you are there, you are actually there,” Trump said at a news conference in the White House Rose Garden. “If things work out, there’s a great celebration to be had on the site, not in a third-party country.”

A Trump-Kim meeting would be the first U.S.-North Korean leadership summit in more than six decades of hostility since the 1950-53 Korean War. Trump previously has said locations were being considered, but Friday said the choice had been narrowed to two or three.

Monday was the first time he’d publicly specified potential locations for the meeting, slated for May or early June. He added the Southeast Asian city state of Singapore was also in the running.

There’s been rampant speculation since Trump accepted the offer from Kim for direct talks in regards to a venue that would be acceptable to both sides. Countries in Europe, Southeast Asia and Mongolia or even a ship in international waters all have been suggested as possible venues.

Trump on Monday made it sound as if governments were vying to play host.

“Everybody wants us. It has the chance to be a big event,” the president said alongside Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, whom he met at the White House Monday.

“The United States has never been closer to potentially have something happen with respect to the Korean Peninsula that can get rid of the nuclear weapons, can create so many good things, so many positive things, and peace and security for the world,” Trump said.

True to form, he first had aired his thoughts on the summit venue in the early morning via Twitter, suggesting the Peace House and Freedom House on the southern side of the DMZ would be a “Representative, Important and Lasting site.”

Trump on Friday claimed credit for the inter-Korean summit, which has spurred hopes of peace on the Korean Peninsula after a torrid 2017 when North Korea rapidly advanced its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. The president now faces a burden in helping turn the Korean leaders’ bold but vague vision for peace