Trump becomes first sitting U.S. President to enter North Korea
President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un exchange smiles, handshakes, and promises to resume denuclearization talks at the DMZ
When President Donald Trump concluded his business at the G20 meeting last week, he indicated he would be happy to meet with North Korea‘s President Kim Jong Un while he was at the DMZ during his visit to South Korea.
That proposed meeting became a reality, as Trump met Kim for 50 minutes along the border between the two countries and stepped into North Korea briefly during their exchange.
With wide grins and a historic handshake, President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un met at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone on Sunday and agreed to revive talks on the pariah nation’s nuclear program. Trump, pressing his bid for a legacy-defining deal, became the first sitting American leader to step into North Korea.
What was intended to be an impromptu exchange of pleasantries turned into a 50-minute meeting, another historic first in the yearlong rapprochement between the two technically warring nations. It marked a return to face-to-face contact between the leaders after talks broke down during a summit in Vietnam in February. Significant doubts remain, though, about the future of the negotiations and the North’s willingness to give up its stockpile of nuclear weapons .
The border encounter was a made-for television moment. The men strode toward one another from opposite sides of the Joint Security Area and shook hands over the raised patch of concrete at the Military Demarcation Line as cameras clicked and photographers jostled to capture the scene.
Both leaders indicated that they will resume denuclearization talks that have been stalled since the collapse of their second summit in Hanoi, and indications were made that some of the sanctions against North Korea were lifted.
“We just had a very, very good meeting with Chairman Kim,” the U.S. president told reporters after the North Korean leader departed. “We’ve agreed that we’re each going to designate a team. The teams will try to work out some details. The teams will begin working and meeting over the next two to three weeks.”
Trump told Kim he was unhappy to see continued economic sanctions on North Korea.
U.S. special representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun had a five-minute talk with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Sun-hui while the Trump-Kim meeting was taking place.
At the DMZ, President Moon Jae-in praised the U.S. president’s decision to meet with Kim at the Demilitarized Zone, saying, “Today’s meeting will definitely accelerate efforts for peace on the Korean Peninsula as well as denuclearization,” according to press pool reports.
No joint declaration or agreements were made, but Trump and President Moon indicated that sanctions could be relaxed if the nuclear disarmament dialogue “goes well.” In Hanoi, Washington refused to accept Pyongyang’s repeated requests for a partial easing of sanctions. Trump and Kim walked away from the meeting without any results.
Leaving South Korea after a wonderful meeting with Chairman Kim Jong Un. Stood on the soil of North Korea, an important statement for all, and a great honor!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2019
I would like to note that this mini-summit comes immediately after the G20’s “excellent” meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, after which Trump indicated that “we are back on track” with China. They have agreed to resume negotiations as well, hoping to work out a trade deal while the U.S. holds off on imposing new tariffs.
The new talks are designed “to see if we can make a deal,” Trump told reporters at the end of the G-20 summit in Japan.
Trump, who said he will hold off on new tariffs on China as talks progress “at least for the time being,” also announced that China agreed to buy more agriculture products from the United States.
American farmers, a politically important group, have been hit particularly hard by the China trade war.
Neither Trump nor China disclosed any concessions they might be willing to make in negotiations that have stalled in the past.
Nor did they put a timeline or deadline on new negotiations.
I had a great meeting with President Xi of China yesterday, far better than expected. I agreed not to increase the already existing Tariffs that we charge China while we continue to negotiate. China has agreed that, during the negotiation, they will begin purchasing large…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2019
It appears that what happens after this particular G20 meeting might be more important that what happened during it.
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Comments
What happens to a marionette when somebody cuts the strings?
Go to YouTube and search for “Obama speaking without his teleprompter.”
ooof, that left a mark!
“What happens to a marionette when somebody cuts the strings?…”
Just look at obama or biden.
Btw, how is life in your mother’s basement?
“Hey, Kim, whassup? I’m gonna be in the neighborhood sometime this week. You know, hobnobbing with Abe, Vlad, and some of the other big shots. And I thought I’d drop by. You gonna be around? I could just stop by. It’d only be a short one; just general stuff, maybe bounce around some ideas, like developing some of the coastal areas, golf courses, maybe a theme park. Stuff like that. Lemme know.”
President Trump is the Man!
President Trump understands the mentality of a ‘petty bureaucrat’. Just this one has nukes.
Kim wants the recognition. He wants to be seen as important. It costs nothing to give it to him. Get him used to it, and then tell him, if he wants it to keep going he needs to tone stuff down.
We shall see if it works.
But different than every other approach to date, and I am happy to see if a different approach can work.
Kim has a country to run, and in their system Kim has to pay off generals with favors in proportion to how much trouble those generals could cause him. So any deal has to favor not only Kim and NK but those generals as well, leaving them all better off too.
Kim would like to join the Trumpized West but has to walk a tightrope to do it, lest the generals kill him.
Trump will always give Kim slack to do that. Kim is grateful for the slack.
It’s a let’s-make-it-work thing.
Yuge.
only Nixon could go to China.
CNN will soon be pointing out the obvious collusion plans with NK for the next election, or something.
Also, the timing makes the debates and Kamala (or whomever) non existent. CNN has a tough task but I am sure they are down (not up) for it.
Trump will end up with a Nobel Peace prize for his work in bringing the North and South together.
However what makes me really…REALLY laugh at liberal left wing democrats is that there is another Trump who will get a Nobel Peace prize and that is Jared with his Palestinian peace initiative and THAT is the one Im really waiting for because as we have seen, after the tens of millions of liberal deaths after net neutrality, tax cuts, 2 SCOTUS appointments AND Trumps Korea prize…those few liberals left alive will be killed off by peace in the middle east 🙂
Do either of them want it? Considering who’s been given a Peace Prize in recent years for absolutely nothing, it’s worthless.
Even more so, because none of them have been asked to return it.
Perhaps they could donate the prize money to Project Veritas or LI.
I’d bet Trump turns down the nobel peace prize if it’s offered.
That’s because Trump prizes peace instead of peace prizes.
It’s interesting to compare obama’s embrace of cuba versus Trump’s embrace of NK: obama’s motive was to sell-out America; Trump’s motive is to protect our country.
Look at what a non-political, non-globalist, stand-up and straight-up guy can do! Think of all the stupid things many politicians have done in the past in the area of foreign policy…think of how consistently wrong they have been and yet, they’re all still heralded as experts by the DC elites and media. Simply incredible…way to go POTUS #45…four more years in 2020 babe.
How perfect is Donald Trump for the president of the US at this point in our history?
An absolute miracle.
Thank you, hillary clinton, for being the unlikeable loser that you are. We couldn’t have done it without you.