N.Korea waiting for official proposal for Trump meeting

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) – North Korea Saturday said that it was waiting for official proposal from United States on Donald Trump’s meeting offer along Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) along border dividing Koreas.

The statement by North Korea's first Vice-Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui came as a response to Donald Trump’s offer of a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in DMZ.

"We see it as a very interesting suggestion, but we have not received an official proposal in this regard," Korean news agency Yonhap quoted the North Korea statement.

Trump had late Friday invited Kim to meet at DMZ.

"After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea [with President Moon]," Trump had said in a tweet. "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(?)!"

Terming the meeting offer “interesting suggestion”, Choe said: "I am of the view that if the DPRK-U.S. summit meetings take place on the division line, as is intended by President Trump, it would serve as another meaningful occasion in further deepening the personal relations between the two leaders and advancing the bilateral relations.”

DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Trump will fly to Seoul from Osaka later this evening for a summit with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in on Sunday.

He also met Moon in Osaka where G20 summit is being held.

“President Trump is working closely with President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea to achieve the final and fully verified denuclearization of North Korea and to establish a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula,” White House said in a statement after a meeting between Moon and Trump in Osaka on the sidelines of G20 summit.

The Korean peninsula denuclearization dialogue is stuck since Hanoi summit between Trump and Kim when the former left the meeting mid-way saying he could not agree to all demands of North Korean leader.

The meeting offer of Trump to Kim came hours after his special representative to North Korea on Friday Stephen Biegun told his South Korean counterpart, Lee Do-hoon, that the U.S. was "ready to hold talks with North Korea to move their denuclearization negotiations forward in a simultaneous and parallel manner".