Trump: Peace within reach
US President gives his blessing as North and South look poised to end Korean War.
Palm Beach: President Donald Trump has given his blessing to talks aimed at formally ending the Korean War in a series of diplomatic revelations, as reports said CIA director Mike Pompeo had met Kim Jong-un during a secret visit to Pyongyang.
Raising expectations for a major breakthrough at a series of upcoming summits, Trump said “a great chance to solve a world problem” was within reach on the Korean peninsula.
The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the two sides technically still in a state of conflict, and the Demilitarized Zone between them bristles with minefields and fortifications.
Seoul officials say they are look- ing at ways to secure a new agreement, with the leader of nucleararmed North Korea Kim and the South’s President Moon Jae-in due to hold a summit next week.
“We are looking at changing the current armistice regime to a peace regime,” an official of the presidential Blue House said yesterday.
The comments came after the US president said on Tuesday that the inter-Korean summit could, with his “blessing”, discuss a peace treaty to formally close the conflict.
“People don’t realise the Korean War has not ended. It’s going on right now and they are discussing an end to the war,” he said.
“Subject to a deal, they have my blessing to discuss that.”
Trump and Kim had not spoken directly, the White House said, but the US president confirmed that Washington and Pyongyang had been in contact at “very high levels” to prepare for a historic meeting between them.
The Washington Post reported that Pompeo had met Kim on a secret trip to the North over the first weekend of April, shortly after he was nominated to be secretary of state.
“Five locations” were being considered for the summit with Kim, Trump said.
“That will be taking place probably in early June or before that, assuming things go well. It’s possible things won’t go well and we won’t have the meetings and we’ll just continue to go on this very strong path we have taken,” he said.
US officials say no decision has been made on a meeting venue, but China, North Korea, South Korea, and Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas are seen as possible locations.
The 1953 armistice was signed in Panmunjom and will also see the April 27 summit between Kim and Moon, with officials from the two Koreas meeting there in preparation.
The US-led United Nations command, China and North Korea are signatories to the half-century-old armistice, while South Korea is not.
“We are hoping for some kind of agreement between the South and North,” the Blue House official said.
“But it can’t be settled with an inter-Korean agreement. Afterwards, all parties involved must review and discuss the final form of the agreement,” he said.