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Trump tours DMZ ahead of meeting with North Korea’s Kim
PANMUNJOM, South Korea, June 30, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald
Trump arrived Sunday in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Korean peninsula
ahead of a meeting with the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
The encounter, only suggested a day earlier by Trump on Twitter, comes with
negotiations over the North’s nuclear programme in stalemate since their last
summit in Vietnam in February.
Accompanied by South Korean President Moon Jae-in, an earnest-looking Trump
toured an observation post overlooking North Korean territory, with a US
military officer pointing out the sights.
Trump is expected to hold a brief encounter with Kim in the DMZ, which
would be their third face-to-face meeting after a historic initial summit in
Singapore and a second in Hanoi that collapsed without an agreement.
“There was great conflict here prior to our meeting in Singapore,” Trump
said at the observation post.
“After our first summit, all of the danger went away… It’s all working
out, it always works out,” he concluded before leaving the site to meet with
US troops.
He and Kim would “just shake hands quickly and say hello because we haven’t
seen each other since Vietnam”, Trump said earlier.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1248 hrs