With wide grins and a historic handshake, President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un met at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone on Sunday and agreed to revive talks on the pariah nation’s nuclear program.
Trump, pressing his bid for a legacy-defining accord, became the first sitting American leader to walk with Kim into North Korea.
The meeting, another historic first in the yearlong rapprochement between the two technically warring nations, marks a return to face-to-face contact between the leaders since talks broke down during a summit in Vietnam in February.
Trump’s brief crossing into North Korean territory marked the latest milestone in two years of roller-coaster diplomacy between the two nations, as personal taunts of “Little Rocket Man” and threats to destroy the other have been ushered out by on-again, off-again talks, professions of love and flowery letters.
“I was proud to step over the line,” Trump told Kim as they met in a building known as “Freedom House” on the South Korean side of the truce village of Panmunjom.
“It is a great day for the world.”
