Trump and Kim hold historic meeting

President Donald Trump on Sunday became the first serving American president to step into North Korea during a meeting with the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, at the heavily guarded demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. The two leaders agreed to resume stalled denuclearization talks in the coming weeks after Trump on Saturday invited Kim to meet him at the border village of Panmunjom. Trump first met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, on Sunday after leaving the G-20 summit in Japan. He shook hands with Kim at the demilitarized zone and crossed the line into North Korea.

The impromptu exchange between the two leaders, proposed by Trump in a Saturday tweet, turned into a 50-minute meeting in which they agreed to revive talks. Trump said he and Kim are “not looking for speed.”

“We are going to have teams, they are going to meet over the next weeks, they are going to start a process, and we will see what happens,” Trump said.

He said the United States would retain economic sanctions on North Korea, but “at some point during the negotiation, things can happen.”

The meeting is the first between the two leaders since a failed February summit in Vietnam. Kim called the meeting a sign of warming ties between the nations. “I think meeting here, two countries that have a hostile past, we are showcasing to the world that we have a new present and we have a positive meeting going forward,” he said.