Kim-Moon Meets at DMZ Despite Trump’s Flip-Flops on Peace Talks

US President Donald Trump tweeted that a team of American officials was in North Korea to discuss the June 12 meeting, raising expectations that the meeting might still happen. Trump’s flip-flop came after the North and South Korean leaders met each other at the ‘truce village’ on Saturday.

In a surprise meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met his counterpart South Korea President Moon Jae-in at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). During the meeting, which lasted for two hours, the two leaders discussed the future of the much anticipated peace talks in Singapore after United States President Donald Trump on Thursday had pulled out from the scheduled talks.

"They exchanged views and discussed ways to implement the Panmunjom Declaration and to ensure a successful US-North Korea summit," the South Korean President's office said in a statement. Kim expressed his “fixed will” to attend the meeting with the US. Kim reiterated his commitment to sit down with Trump and to "complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula".

According to reports, a senior North Korean official had arrived in Beijing, apparently, on his way to Singapore for the pre-summit talks.

The withdrawal of Trump from the talks has led to a widespread condemnation, as hundreds protested in Seoul against the attempts by the US to derail the three-way peace meeting. South Korea’s People’s Democracy Party (PDP) and Minjung party, along with others, denounced the ‘reckless attitude’ of Trump towards the peace process in the region.

The three-way meeting was first proposed by Kim and Moon during the first ever high-level meeting between the two countries, at the border village of Panmunjom on April 27. It was the first time that a ruling North Korean leader crossed the de-facto border and entered the South since the Korean war.