This archive report was first published on 30 June 2019.
US President Donald Trump has announced that he will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Sunday, in an effort to revitalize stalled nuclear talks.
The meeting, which will be the third time the two leaders have met in person, will be a brief greeting rather than an extended negotiation.
Mr. Trump made the announcement on Twitter, saying he would be meeting Chairman Kim at the DMZ border. He added that there was 'a lot of good feeling' between him and Mr. Kim, and that he believed he understood the North Korean leader.
Mr. Kim has accepted Mr. Trump's unorthodox invitation, which was posted on Twitter just a day earlier. The meeting will be a camera-friendly, history-making demonstration of friendship between countries that have been longtime adversaries.
Mr. Trump said that he would be willing to cross over the line into North Korea if need be, which would make him the first sitting American president to visit the long-isolated country.
Mr. Kim has previously crossed the DMZ to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, becoming the first North Korean leader to do so since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim have met twice before, in Singapore in June 2018 and in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019. Their second summit meeting ended in failure, with the two leaders unable to agree on a concrete way to pursue a denuclearization deal.
North Korea has since launched short-range missiles in violation of United Nations restrictions, and Mr. Kim has gone dark, refusing to respond to either the Americans or the South Koreans.
However, in recent weeks, the North Korean government has re-emerged on the world stage, with Mr. Kim exchanging letters with Mr. Trump and meeting separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Mr. Trump said that he did not think a third meeting between him and Mr. Kim should be arranged unless a substantive agreement could be negotiated beforehand. However, he decided to see if Mr. Kim would agree to a short greeting, given that he was already planning to visit the DMZ during his trip to South Korea.
