Trump proposes meeting with Kim Jong Un, shaking his hand in DMZ

President Trump on Friday tweeted an invitation to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un to come to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in. “While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!” Mr. Trump tweeted. 

Mr. Trump is in Japan as he wraps up the G20 summit. He will be traveling to South Korea on Saturday.

Mr. Trump’s summit with Kim in Vietnam earlier this year collapsed without an agreement for denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. South Korea’s government said earlier Friday that North Korea is ready for talks with the U.S.

Earlier Friday, the U.S. Special Representative on North Korea, Stephen Biegun, would not answer a question from CBS News’ Weijia Jiang about whether there would be a third summit with North Korea. 

As he left the White House for Asia earlier this week, Mr. Trump was asked whether he’d meet with Kim while he is in the region. 

“I’ll be meeting with a lot of other people … but I may be speaking to him in a different form,” Mr. Trump said. 

Such trips to the demilitarized zone, the heavily fortified border between North and South Korea, are usually undertaken under heavy security and the utmost secrecy. Mr. Trump tried to visit the DMZ when he was in Seoul in November 2017, but his helicopter was grounded by heavy fog.

Mr. Trump has met twice with Kim: in 2018 in Singapore and in February in Vietnam. 

Mr. Trump repeatedly boasts of how well he gets along with Kim, who displays authoritarian tendencies.