Trump Meets with Kim Jong Un inside North Korea (+Video)
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The US President Donald Trump has met Kim Jong-un at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which separates South and North Korea, for a handshake and a face to face meeting.
"Stepping across that line was a great honor," Trump said after the two walked toward each other and shook hands, making him the first sitting president to cross the demarcation line between North and South Korea, according to NBCnews.
Trump and Moon landed in a helicopter mid-afternoon in the DMZ under overcast skies and proceeded to a vista overlooking North Korea where US presidents are often photographed during visits to the zone peering out over the North. Sean Morrow, commander of the UN Security Battalion, gave Trump a briefing about the area and the security situation, gesturing toward the distance.
Earlier, Trump had said that he “looked forward to seeing” Kim.
Trump’s initial invitation to Kim came on Twitter on Friday. Already, Trump is the first US president to meet a North Korean leader while in office, having met with him twice before. This marks the first meeting in the no-man’s-land between North and South since the end of the Korean War.
Trump and Kim met last in February in Hanoi, Vietnam, but the talks were considered a failure and the summit was cut short. Pyongyang claimed that Washington was to blame for the unsuccessful meeting. That said, the two leaders have since maintained an ongoing and apparently amiable written correspondence. Trump has repeatedly praised Kim’s letters, describing the most recent message he received from the North Korean leader as “beautiful.”
While the pair are reportedly on friendly terms, Washington and Pyongyang continue to spar over sanctions relief, which the US insists cannot happen until the hermit state commits to denuclearization.
