Could Trump meet Kim again? His team is making ‘contingency’ plans

American diplomats are dusting off plans for Donald Trump to make a surprise visit to the demilitarised zone (DMZ) during his upcoming trip to South Korea.

In 2019, Mr Trump became the first sitting American president to set foot in North Korea after crossing the demarcation line that divides the Korean peninsula.

The line, which exists because the 1950 war between the two countries ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, is roughly 155 miles long and is the world’s most heavily armed border.

The US president is due to return to South Korea for a major international summit at the end of October, and although there is no meeting scheduled with Kim Jong-un, American officials are readying themselves for all eventualities.

“The US embassy in Seoul is revisiting its plans for a Potus DMZ visit in the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (Apec),” said a senior diplomatic source. “It is just a contingency at the moment.”

Such a move would be a classic piece of presidential showmanship by a leader with an eye on the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2019, Mr Trump had been due to visit the DMZ but surprised the world with an 11th-hour Twitter message inviting Kim to shake hands and “say hello”.

Mr Trump stepped across a low concrete barrier before walking about 20 paces inside hostile territory with the North Korean leader. They then crossed back into South Korea to address journalists.

The impromptu change of plans seemed to take his own staff by surprise.

Journalists were manhandled by North Korean security guards, and Stephanie Grisham, the president’s then press secretary, scuffled with officials as she tried to ensure reporters could document the moment.

Mr Trump will depart Washington DC later this month for the three-country trip through Asia.

The visit ends in South Korea, where he is now unlikely to hold talks with Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Apec summit after a furious outburst on Friday.

Mr Trump accused Beijing of holding the world to ransom by announcing fresh restrictions on the export of materials which are essential for the production of semiconductors and crucial modern technology.

In turn, Mr Trump threatened a “massive” increase in tariffs as he signalled a resumption of the US’s costly trade war with China.

“I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at Apec, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” he said on Truth Social. It remains to be seen whether the two leaders will meet as Mr Trump did not formally cancel the meeting.

Ahead of the trip, officials are leaving nothing to chance, including a potential meeting with Kim.

“You just never know with this guy,” said a second source.

Just as he did six years ago, Mr Trump has floated the idea of a meeting ahead of time.

“I’d like to meet him this year,” Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in August when he welcomed South Korea’s new president to the White House.

He added that he would see the North Korean leader in the “appropriate future”.

It fits Mr Trump’s pattern of using high-profile meetings to kick-start difficult or stalled negotiations.

A senior administration official told The Telegraph: “President Trump in his first term held three historic summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that stabilised the Korean Peninsula.

“US policy on North Korea has not changed. President Trump remains open to talking with Kim Jong-un, without any preconditions.”

The surprise 2019 gathering came during a year of rapid diplomacy.

Mr Trump kept up a correspondence with Kim and the pair met three times – the photo op in the DMZ, and at two summits.

Talks eventually unravelled over North Korea’s reluctance to give up its nuclear weapons, and Mr Trump was left with a handful of flattering letters praising his “great decisiveness and excellent leadership”, but no breakthrough.

North Korea watchers are sceptical that Kim would agree to such a stunt this time around.

“I think it’s a low probability, high impact scenario,” said Bruce Klingner, senior fellow at the Mansfield Foundation.

In 2018, he said, North Korea was looking to diversify away from its reliance on China and Russia.

But now the war in Ukraine, where North Korean troops are fighting alongside Russian forces, has changed the calculus.

“Perhaps the biggest factor is that North Korea is getting so many benefits with very few to no conditions from Russia,” said Mr Klingner. “Far more benefits than they could get from Washington.”

Earlier this year, Kim’s sister rejected signals from Mr Trump, saying Washington would have to accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state.

In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo-jong said the relationship between her brother and the American president “is not bad”.

But she added that if Mr Trump tried to use that relationship to push North Korea towards denuclearisation then Pyongyang would consider it “nothing but a mockery”.

Gi-Wook Shin, a professor of contemporary Korea at Stanford University, said anything could happen.

“I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a meeting,” he said. “And it’s prudent for the US embassy to prepare for any contingency.”

[Source: Daily Telegraph]