North Korea today heralded Donald Trump’s visit to the country as an “amazing event” as regional powers welcomed the meeting between the US President and Kim Jong-un.
Pyongyang’s state media offered rare praise for its Western rival after Mr Trump yesterday became the first sitting American president to cross the border at the Demilitarized Zone.
The front page of North Korea’s ruling party Rodong Sinmun newspaper was dominated by a seven-photo splash of the moment, which would have been unthinkable just two years ago when the two leaders were trading insults.
The country’s main KCNA news agency said the meeting marked a “dramatic turn” of events.
“The top leaders of the two countries agreed to keep in close touch in the future, too, and resume and push forward productive dialogues for making a new breakthrough in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and in the bilateral relations,” KCNA said.
The “bold, brave decision” that led to the meeting “created unprecedented trust between the two countries,” said the agency, adding that Mr Trump and Mr Kim “voiced full understanding and sympathy.”
The meeting was denounced by US Democrats and decried by some as political theatre. However, China’s foreign ministry today said it welcomed the move, while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: “I hope that this summit will lead to progress.”
Breaking the ice with a Twitter invitation, Mr Trump agreed to meet Kim on the strip of land dividing North and South Korea following the conclusion of the G20 summit in Osaka.
They shook hands before Mr Trump walked a few yards into North Korea.
South Korea said it hoped the trip would revive the peace process, which stalled following the collapse of nuclear negotiations between Mr Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February.
Lee Sang-Min, spokesman for South Korea’s unification ministry, said the government would “strengthen its efforts to create a virtuous cycle between inter-Korean relations, denuclearization and North Korea-US relations”.
Mr Trump said: “Stepping across that line was a great honour.”
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