Osaka: US President Donald Trump Saturday invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to meet for a historic handshake at the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea in what he said was a spontaneous offer.
The spectacular invitation on Twitter caught observers by surprise. If Kim accepts, it would be the third meeting between the leaders of the two former enemies amid efforts to denuclearise the Korean peninsula.
“After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon),” tweeted Trump.
“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 said from Japan’s Osaka, where he is attending the G20 summit.
Trump later told reporters he “just thought of it this morning” but the offer came amid a recent flurry of diplomacy over North Korea’s nuclear programme after a Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi collapsed without an agreement. Speculation grew that something was afoot when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo skipped a G20 dinner late Friday without giving a reason.
“We’ll see. If he is there, we will see each other for two minutes,” said Trump, adding: “I just put out a feeler because I don’t know where he is right now, he may not be in North Korea.” “We seem to get along… That’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” added the president. There was no immediate response from Pyongyang.
“Although Twitter is banned from the general public in the North, those in leadership, including Kim Jong Un, should have access to social media including Twitter,” said Ahn Chan Il, a former defector and now a researcher in Seoul.
“They have a separate office that regularly monitors them.” The South’s presidential Blue House said nothing had been confirmed at this point and added: “Our position, which hopes for a dialogue between the US and North Korea to take place, remains unchanged.” After several months of public silence, an exchange of letters between the leaders appears to have thawed the deep-freeze and raised hopes for a third summit after a historic first tete-a-tete in Singapore on June 12, 2018 and the second in Hanoi in February.
Trump will be heading to Seoul immediately after the G20 summit in Osaka, where on Saturday he will hold a highly anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a bid to ease trade tensions between the world’s top two economies.
According to South Korea’s Unification minister, the two leaders have exchanged a total of 12 letters since the beginning of last year, with Kim the more assiduous suitor in their nuclear bromance, penning eight of those.
Last week, Xi visited Pyongyang for a highly symbolic summit with Kim. Analysts say that diplomatic breakthroughs often follow on from such meetings. The Hanoi summit foundered amid disagreements on what the North would be willing to give up in exchange for sanctions relief.
The two sides blamed each other for the breakdown but Washington has said they are prepared to meet the North Koreans at any time without preconditions to keep diplomacy alive. Apparently voicing his frustration at the diplomatic stalemate, Kim fired off several short-range “projectiles” that Trump shrugged off.
Pingback: research firm Toronto
Pingback: maha pharmaceuticals
Pingback: emergency plumbing West Bend
Pingback: patek philippe grand complications 5139g replica
Pingback: Christian Louboutin Black Leather Patent Pigalle Pumps replica
Pingback: 63.250.38.81/
Pingback: walmart cbd oil
Pingback: Coolsculpting
Pingback: thenaturalpenguin
Pingback: bitcoin trading software
Pingback: bitcoin evolution
Pingback: buy vapes online
Pingback: td easyweb online
Pingback: Devops
Pingback: Regression Testing meaning
Pingback: female articles on sex drives
Pingback: buy dumps
Pingback: Research
Pingback: Urban Nido Villas
Pingback: Smoke Testing tools
Pingback: canlı bahis siteleri
Pingback: canlı casino siteleri 2021
Pingback: euroclub-th
Pingback: 3D printing
Pingback: Glo Extracts
Pingback: Creams
Pingback: cvv shop 2022
Pingback: nova88
Pingback: Dark Net
Pingback: sbobet
Pingback: What Are Essential Oils and Do They Work?
Pingback: pour apprendre plus
Pingback: dmt plants for sale
Pingback: Thomas Adewumi University
Pingback: page