South Korea’s leader floats 3-way talks with Trump and Kim

SEOUL, South Korea — President Moon Jae-in of South Korea said Wednesday that he and President Donald Trump could sit down for a three-way summit meeting with Kim Jong Un if their individual meetings with the North Korean leader on denuclearizing his country proceed well in the coming weeks.

Moon and Kim are planning an inter-Korean summit in late April at Peace House, a South Korean conference hall inside Panmunjom, the so-called truce village that straddles the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, separating the two Koreas.

That meeting is expected to be followed by a planned Trump-Kim summit meeting by May. If that meeting takes place, Trump will be the first-ever sitting U.S. president to meet a North Korean leader; Washington and Pyongyang are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War was halted with a truce rather than a peace treaty.

While presiding over a meeting Wednesday of government officials preparing for the inter-Korean summit, Moon attached great significance to the venue for his coming meeting with Kim. “The North Korea-United States summit, which will follow the inter-Korean summit, will itself be a momentous event in world history,” Moon said. “Depending on where the meeting takes place ... and depending on progress, there can be a three-way summit among South and North Korea and the United States.”

Some South Korean news outlets interpreted Moon’s remarks as indicating that he wanted Trump and Kim to also hold their summit meeting in the DMZ. Holding it in Panmunjom could provide great optics for Moon’s government.