Trump hints at meeting Kim at DMZ

U.S. President Donald Trump / Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump offered Saturday to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the inter-Korean border when he travels to South Korea later in the day.

Trump made the offer on Twitter, hours before he was due to travel to Seoul from Osaka, Japan, where he has been attending the G20 summit.

"After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea," Trump wrote.

"While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello!"

There had been speculation that a Trump-Kim meeting could happen inside the Demilitarized Zone during the U.S. President's visit to Seoul, Saturday and Sunday.

Previously, before leaving Washington, Wednesday, Trump denied that he was planning to meet Kim, saying only that he may speak to the North Korean leader "in a different form."

At a meeting in Osaka with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud, Trump confirmed that he would be going to the DMZ, a trip that had previously been reported to be under consideration.

"We're going there," he said, according to news reports. "If he's there, we'll see each other for two minutes," he added, noting that he's unsure whether Kim was in the country.

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If the two meet, it will be their third time after their historic first summit in Singapore last June and the second summit in Vietnam.

The U.S. and North Korea have been negotiating the dismantlement of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanctions relief, but talks have stalled since the second summit ended in failure.

An exchange of personal letters between Trump and Kim this month led to hopes for a revival of the discussions.

Stephen Biegun, the U.S. point man on the North, met with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Do-hoon, in Seoul, Friday, and expressed the U.S.' willingness to hold "constructive" dialogue with the North, according to the foreign ministry.

Biegun also said the U.S. was ready to advance the commitments made at the Singapore summit "in a simultaneous and parallel manner."

The first Trump-Kim meeting yielded an agreement to establish "new" relations between the two countries and build a lasting peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. It also committed the North to work toward complete denuclearization in exchange for U.S. security guarantees.

President Moon Jae-in and Trump are expected to discuss ways to resume the denuclearization talks. Moon has been eager to act as a mediator between North Korea and the U.S., and held three summits of his own with Kim last year.

The President said in a written interview with seven global news agencies this week that the U.S. and the North have been engaged in back-channel talks over a third summit.

The North later denied that such discussions were taking place.

This will be Trump's second visit to South Korea since taking office. The first was in November 2017. Trump tried to go to the DMZ during that trip too, but heavy fog forced his helicopter to turn back. (Yonhap)

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