Weather cancels Trump’s trip to Korean neutral zone
President urges talk with N. Korea
SEOUL, South Korea — A surprise visit by President DonaldTrump to the heavily fortified Korean demilitarized zone was thwarted by bad weather Wednesday. The aborted trip came a day after Mr. Trump modulated his aggressive rhetoric and urged North Korea to come to the negotiating table.
Mr. Trump had been scheduled to make the unannounced early-morning trip to the DMZ amid heightened tensions between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
Marine One left Seoul at daybreak and flew most of the way to the DMZ — but was forced to turn back due to weather conditions. Weather reports from near the heavily fortified border showed misting conditions and visibility below a mile.
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 told reporters traveling with the president.
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.
A White House official had earlier ruled out the DMZ trip for Mr. Trump, claiming the president didn’t have time on his schedule and that DMZ visits have become “a little bit of a cliche.”
But Ms. Sanders said the visit had been planned well before Mr. Trump’s departure for Asia. The trip was kept secret, Ms. Sanders said, for security reasons.
Mr. Trump was scheduled to address the South Korean National Assembly before closing out his two-day visit and moving on to Beijing.
Visiting the border that has separated the North and South for 64 years has become something of a ritual for U.S. presidents trying to demonstrate their resolve against North Korea’s everescalating aggression. Every American president since Ronald Reagan, save for George H.W. Bush, has made the trip, reaffirming their commitment to standing with the South.
The attempted visit was scheduled for a day after Mr. Trump made a striking shift in tone for a president who for months has issued increasingly dire threats to answer any hostile North Korean action with “fire and fury.” In a recent speech at the United Nations, Mr. Trump said he would “totally destroy” the nation, if necessary, and has derided North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, as“little Rocket Man.”
But on Tuesday, his first day on the Korean Peninsula as president, Mr. Trump said he’d seen “a lot of progress” in dealing with Pyongyang, though he stopped short of saying whether he wanted direct diplomatic talks.
“It makes sense for North Korea to come to the table and make a deal that is good for the people of North Korea and for the world,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference with Mr. Moon. “I do see certain movement.”
North Korea has fired off more than a dozen missiles this year but none in nearly two months.
Analysts caution against reading too much into the pause. There’s no public sign of any diplomatic progress between Washington and Pyongyang.
U.S. officials say the back channel between the State Department and the North Korean mission at the United Nations in New York remains intact, but contacts have not been substantive other than achieving the release of American college student Otto Warmbier in June. He died days after his repatriation to the U.S.