Trump And North Korea’s Kim To Meet At DMZ

Trump And North Korea

US President Donald Trump has confirmed he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un briefly at the demilitarised zone (DMZ) on Sunday.

In a joint press conference in Seoul, South Korea President Moon Jae-in confirmed they would have a “handshake for peace” at the border.

North Korea has not yet commented.

It will be Mr Trump and Mr Kim’s third meeting.

Mr Trump told the press conference that he and Mr Kim had “developed a very good relationship” and he was looking forward to meeting him.

The DMZ (demilitarised zone) is the thin strip of land which divides North and South Korea. No sitting US president has been inside it before.

Why will this meeting be significant?

With no time for the all important backroom diplomacy, it is expected to be largely a photo opportunity.

Negotiations with North Korea, to try convince it to abandon its controversial nuclear programme, reached a peak last year when Mr Trump and Mr Kim had a historic meeting in Singapore.

They both committed to the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula, but without clarifying what that meant.

What is the DMZ?

The demilitarised zone (DMZ), which runs about 4km (2.5 miles) wide and 250km long, has divided the peninsula since the Korean War ended in 1953.

Though that area, by definition, has no military installations or personnel, beyond it lies one of the most heavily militarised borders in the world.

Tourists can also go to the JSA when relations between the two countries – still technically at war – allow it.

If Mr Trump were to cross over into North Korea he would be the first US president to do so.

None of his predecessors managed it, including Bill Clinton, who once described the DMZ as the “scariest place on Earth”.