Donald Trump proposed DMZ meeting in letter to North Korea’s Kim Jong-un before visit: Asahi report
- The letter was reportedly sent to Pyongyang by a senior US official, the Japanese newspaper said
- Kim Jong-un was reportedly ‘surprised’ by Trump’s request to meet, and called the US president’s short walk over the demarcation line into North Korea ‘a very courageous and determined act’
Trump suggested the DMZ meeting in a letter to the North Korean leader, which was sent to Pyongyang in June by a senior US official, the Japanese newspaper said.
The North Korean side agreed to give a “sign” if the meeting were to go ahead, according to the report.
Nuclear talks to resume in ‘two or three weeks’, Trump says after meeting Kim at DMZ border
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed in a statement that month that a letter was sent by the president.
The day before the summit, while in Japan for the G20 gathering, Trump tweeted about his willingness to cross the border to meet Kim.
North Korea says US ‘hell-bent on hostile acts’ despite wanting to talk
He said he “put out a feeler” and that he did not know where Kim was at the time. Hours later, North Korean diplomat Choe Son-hui called Trump’s tweet “a very interesting suggestion”.
According to Asahi, that was the signal to the US’s special envoy to North Korea, Stephen Biegun, to begin preparations for the meeting.
While Trump has met Kim twice before at summits in Singapore and Hanoi, no US president had ever sat down with a North Korean leader at the DMZ.
Kim said he was “surprised” by Trump’s request to meet, and called the US president’s short walk over the demarcation line into North Korea “a very courageous and determined act”.
