President Trump briefly crossed into North Korea to meet Chairman Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea on Sunday, marking the first time ever a sitting U.S. president has done so.
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
History was made, as Trump and Kim walked up to the demarcation line dividing the North and South Korea, and shook hands.
Kim Jong Un then invited President Trump to cross into North Korea. The two men walked a few yards to reach a road on the North Korean side, continued a few seconds then both crossed back into South Korea.
Thank you, President @realDonaldTrump, for making history today. I was honored to accompany you to the DMZ and I look forward to working with my DPRK counterpart to fulfill the commitments made by our two countries in Singapore, which were renewed today. pic.twitter.com/mK4adam3EC
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) June 30, 2019
“Good to see you,” Kim said. “I never expected to see you in this place.”
“We want to bring an end to our unpleasant past and bring in a new future, so this is a very courageous and determined act,” he said. “This handshake of peace itself serves to demonstrate that today is different from yesterday”.
Donald Trump said it was “my honor” to cross into North Korea.
“A lot of really great things are happening, tremendous things,” he said. “We met and we liked each other from Day One, and that was very important.”
Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un meet at inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, pledge to restart talks #TrumpKimSummit pic.twitter.com/irXUUxztsI
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) June 30, 2019
Both the leaders later held 53 minutes of private talks, and agreed to set up teams to “work out some details” to see if progress could be made in their negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program, Trump said.
“Speed is not the object, we want to see if we can do a really comprehensive, good deal,” Trump said after the talks.
“Nobody knows how things turn out, but certainly this was a great day, this was a very legendary, very historic day.”
“It’ll be even more historic if something comes up, something very important,” he added. “Very big stuff, pretty complicated, but not as complicated as people think.”
This meeting came four months after the breakdown of US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un meeting at the second summit in Hanoi.
Though, Donald Trump had argued that the summit had been a success because his relationship with the North Korean leader had only deepened.
The Hanoi Summit was a two-day summit meeting between North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump, held at the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 27–28, 2019.
