SEOUL (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump Sunday created history by becoming the first US president to set foot on North Korean soil.
The brief impromptu meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in which not much noteworthy came about, was the third between the leaders in the past one year.
In the Singapore summit in June 2018, Kim had promised to work toward denuclearization.
But the much hyped second summit in Taiwan's capital in February ended without an agreement. The two leaders cut short their discussions after North Korean request for a full waiver of sanctions in return for the Communist country's willingness to abandon nuclear weapons was rejected.
As per White House schedule, the North Korean visit was not on Trump's agenda when he left for the G20 summit in Japan.
On the penultimate day of his Asia-Pacific tour, Trump extended on Twitter an invitation of meeting with Kim.
Sunday, Trump traveled to the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the demarcation line between the two Koreas in Panmunjom, with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-In.
Kim joined the two leaders at the military demarcation line.
Kim invited Trump to cross into North Korean territory. Trump took few steps in that direction and spent a few minutes with Kim. The two leaders posed for photos, and sat down for a bilateral meeting at the Freedom House.
In a statement issued after the meeting, the official Korean Central News Agency said Trump and Kim agreed to 'resume and push forward productive dialogues for making a new breakthrough in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula'.
Kim said he views this gesture as an expression of Trump's willingness to eliminate all the unfortunate past and open a new future.
South Korean President Kim Jae Moon gave credit to Trump for transforming the Joint Security Area from the symbol of confrontation and hostilities to the symbol of peace.
He indicated that the dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea will resume as early as possible.
Later, addressing U.S. service members in South Korea's Osan Air Base, Trump said he noticed many people from North Korea were literally in tears, seeing him entering their country.
Speaking to the media, Trump said, 'When I first became President of the United States, there was great conflict in this area.... And now we have just the opposite. And it's my honor. And it's the Chairman's honor, I can say. We work well together'.
Trump invited Kim to the White House.
Landing back in the U.S., Trump did not answer questions about his meeting with Kim, including when the North Korean leader would be visiting the White House.
While the White House depicted it as a chance happening in short notice, The New York Times described the meeting as 'a masterpiece of drama'.
'From a seemingly fanciful tweet to a historic step into North Korean territory, President Trump's largely improvised third meeting on Sunday with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, was a masterpiece of drama, the kind of made-for-TV spectacle that Mr. Trump treasures,' the daily said in an article titled, 'In New Talks, U.S. May Settle for a Nuclear Freeze by North Korea'.
The New York Times says that for weeks before the meeting, 'a real idea has been taking shape inside the Trump administration that officials hope might create a foundation for a new round of negotiations'.
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