SEOUL, June 30 (UPI) — President Trump met Kim Jong Un at the DMZ and stepped across the border into North Korea on Sunday afternoon, marking the first time a sitting U.S. president has set foot on North Korean soil.
Emerging from a scrum of security service and traveling press, Trump and Kim met at the military demarcation line, a low concrete ridge in the truce village of Panmunjom that marks the border between North and South.
They shook hands and chatted briefly before Kim invited Trump to cross into the North, where they shook hands and posed for photos.
The two then crossed to the other side of the border, where South Korean President Moon Jae-in was waiting for them.
Answering questions from reporters, Kim noted said that the meeting was an expression of Trump’s willingness to “eliminate the unfortunate past” the countries share and work toward a “new future.”
President Trump called stepping across the border a “great honor,” and said that his personal relationship with the North Korean leader helped set the stage for the historic meeting.
“We met and we liked each other from day one, and that was very important,” said Trump, who thanked Kim for agreeing to the meeting under “very quick notice.”
Trump added that he “would invite [Kim] to the White House right now.”
The two leaders then headed into the Freedom House on the South Korean side of Panmunjom for a private discussion, the third time the leaders have met.
