Trump suggests truce village for Kim Jong-un summit

WASHINGTON. - US President Donald Trump suggested yesterday that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un be held in the truce village that straddles the border separating the two Koreas.

Trump has previously listed the number of locations under consideration for the historic summit - which would be the first between a sitting US president and a leader of North Korea - but this is his first public comment on a potential site.

“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.

The Peace House in Panmunjom, the truce village in the Demilitarised Zone that separates the two Koreas, was where Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Friday for a historic summit.

Kim, the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War, walked with Moon to the Peace House on the southern side of the border for their meeting. Preparations for a Trump-Kim summit have gathered momentum since the summit, which saw North and South Korea promise to pursue the complete denuclearisation of the peninsula and a permanent peace.

Seoul says North Korea has pledged to shut down its nuclear test site within weeks and invite American weapons experts to verify its closure.

Kim also told Moon the North would have no need for nuclear weapons if the United States promised not to invade it, South Korean officials said.

Last year, Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test, by far its most powerful to date, and test-launched missiles theoretically capable of reaching the US mainland.

Its actions sent tensions soaring as Kim and Trump traded personal insults and threats of war. Trump has demanded the North give up its weapons, and Washington is pressing for it to do so in a complete, verifiable and irreversible way.

But Pyongyang views its nuclear arsenal as essential for the regime’s survival, and would likely make security guarantees a condition of giving it up. - AFP.