Photo: Dong-A Ilbo via Getty Images/Getty Images
PresidentDonald Trumpbecame the first U.S. President to set foot in North Korea on Sunday.
“It was just an honor to be with you. And it was an honor that you asked me to step over that line. And I was proud to step over that line,” Trump told North Korean dictatorKim Jong Unas seen invideofrom their meeting. “I thought that you might do that, I wasn’t sure, but I was ready to do it.”
Meanwhile, many politicians scoffed at Trump’s photo opp. “Dictators seem to get elevated and people who believe in democracy not,” Sen. Chuck Schumer told theAssociated Press.
“We want to see a denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, a reduction in these missiles. But it’s not as easy as just going and, you know, bringing a hot dish over the fence to the dictator next door,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Sunday during her interview with CNN’sState of the Union. “This is a ruthless dictator and when you go forward, you have to have clear focus and a clear mission and clear goals.”
While at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Trump first informed his Twitter followers that he was heading to South Korea afterward, and asked Kim if he would be willing to meet at the border or in the Demilitarized Zone for a quick handshake.
“After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). 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(?)!” Trump tweeted on Friday.
President Donald Trump (left) and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in June 2019.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
And with that tweet, Trump found himself historically stepping across the North and South Korean border on Sunday, into the Korean Demilitarized Zone, shaking hands with Kim before they held an hour-long meeting together (their third in person) in the Freedom House at the DMZ,CNNreported.
“I never expected to meet you at this place,” Kim told Trump right before he stepped across the border.
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“I think meeting here, two countries that have a hostile past, we are showcasing to the world that we have a new present and we have a positive meeting going forward,” the dictator added.
Trump called the meeting a “great honor” ina tweet following his meeting, in which he and Kim agreed to restart talks — each leader creating a team of negotiators to continue discussions surrounding North Korea’s denuclearization.
This was the leaders’ first meeting, and the first sight of progress, since their February summit in Vietnam when both sides couldn’t come to an agreement on sanctions relief for North Korea’s dismantling of their nuclear arsenal.
source: people.com
