Trump says open to meeting Kim Jong Un at DMZ
Updated 12:45, 29-Jun-2019
CGTN
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U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday that he would like to meet with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on the border of the DPRK and the Republic of Korea (ROK). 

After attending the G20 summit in Osaka, Trump will head to Seoul to meet ROK President Moon Jae-in. 

"While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea (DPRK) sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!" Trump said on Twitter. 

"If he's there, we'll see each other for two minutes, that's all we can, but that will be fine," Trump said. He added that he and Kim "get along very well." 

U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he arrives at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019. /Reuters Photo

U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he arrives at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019. /Reuters Photo

The surprise offer came amid a recent flurry of diplomacy over DPRK's nuclear program after a Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi collapsed in February without an agreement. 

DPRK: Trump-Kim meet at DMZ 'very interesting suggestion' 

A proposal by Trump to meet DPRK leader Kim this weekend at the DMZ on the Korean border is  a "very interesting suggestion," the DPRK said on Saturday.  

"We see it as a very interesting suggestion, but we have not received an official proposal," the official KCNA news agency cited first Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui as saying.  

"I am of the view that if the DPRK-U.S. summit meetings take place on the division line, as is intended by President Trump, it would serve as another meaningful occasion in further deepening the personal relations between the two leaders and advancing the bilateral relations." 

U.S. special envoy Stephen Biegun said on Friday the United States was ready to hold constructive talks with the DPRK to follow through on a denuclearization agreement reached by the two countries last year, the ROK foreign ministry said. 

Biegun told his ROK counterpart, Lee Do-hoon, that Washington wanted to make "simultaneous, parallel" progress on the agreement reached at a summit between Trump and Kim in Singapore last year, the ministry said in a statement. 

Trump said before departing for the G20 Osaka Summit that he did not expect to meet with Kim during his trip. 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week that a recent exchange of letters between Trump and Kim boosted hopes for a restart of talks, calling it a "very real possibility." 

(With input from Reuters)