In this June 12, 2019, photo, South Korean soldiers stand during a press tour at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea. Yonhap

'Trump considers visiting DMZ,' government official says

By Kim Yoo-chul

President Moon Jae-in will hold a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula at Cheong Wa Dae, June 30, presidential office officials said Monday.

"U.S. President Donald Trump plans to make a state visit to South Korea for two days from Saturday. President Moon proposed Trump's visit during an April summit in Washington, D.C. The agenda will be about denuclearization, and bringing a lasting peace to the peninsula through collaborative efforts between the two countries," Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman Ko Min-jung said in a press briefing.

The U.S. president will leave for Washington from Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, Sunday evening, Ko told reporters. The upcoming Moon-Trump summit is the eighth since the two first met in June 2017.

Details of Trump's schedule during his stay here will be released once they are fixed, Ko added. Trump plans to arrive in Osaka, Japan, Thursday to attend the upcoming G20 summit. The U.S. president will hold a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping to explore possible ways to resolve the deepening U.S.-China trade friction and break an impasse in the nuclear dialogue with North Korea.

In this April 27, 2018, file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, and President Moon Jae-in raise their hands after signing on a joint statement at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone. Yonhap