President Donald Trump suggested Monday that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un be held in the truce village that straddles the border separating the two Koreas. Trump revealed last week that two or three locations were under consideration for the historic summit - which would be the first between a sitting US president and a leader of North Korea - but this is the first time he has publicly named a potential site.
"Numerous countries are being considered for the MEETING, but would Peace House/Freedom House, on the Border of North & South Korea, be a more Representative, Important and Lasting site than a third party country? Just asking!" Trump tweeted. Possible locations for the historic encounter reportedly include Singapore, Mongolia and Switzerland.
The Peace House in Panmunjom - the village in the Demilitarized Zone where the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War was signed - was where Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Friday in a major step towards easing tension on the flashpoint peninsula. Kim, the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the armistice, walked with Moon to the Peace House on the southern side of the border for their meeting.
Preparations for a Trump-Kim summit have gathered further momentum since Friday's summit, which saw North and South Korea promise to pursue the complete denuclearization of the peninsula and a permanent peace. Seoul says North Korea has pledged to shut down its nuclear test site within weeks and invite American weapons experts to verify its closure.
Kim also told Moon the North would have no need for nuclear weapons if the United States promised not to invade it, South Korean officials said. The planned Trump-Kim summit is a significant shift from last year, when Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test, by far its most powerful to date, and test-launched missiles theoretically capable of reaching the US mainland.
Its actions sent tensions soaring as Kim and Trump traded personal insults and threats of war. Trump has demanded the North give up its weapons, and Washington is pressing for it to do so in a complete, verifiable and irreversible way.
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