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Reuters

US President Donald Trump may travel to the heavily fortified demilitarised zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea when he visits South Korea next month, the South’s Yonhap news agency said, citing a defence source.
The White House sent an advance team of working-level officials in late September to check candidate sites for Trump’s “special activity” in South Korea, the source was quoted as saying.
Trump was expected to send a significant message to North Korea, either verbally or “kinetically”, during his first trip to the peninsula as US commander-in-chief, the source said Tuesday.
The truce village of Panmunjom and the Observation Post Ouellette, both inside the DMZ, were among locations Trump was considering visiting, the source said.

Yonhap did not elaborate and the White House did not comment.
Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have been engaged in an increasingly bellicose exchange of rhetoric, with Trump suggesting the military option was the only way to halt the North’s missile and nuclear programmes.
A trip to the DMZ, following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Barack Obama, and Vice-President Mike Pence, would bring Trump within metres of North Korean soldiers, who stand eyeball to eyeball with their South Korean enemies, and likely be regarded by the North as highly provocative.

In recent weeks, North Korea has launched two missiles over Japan and conducted its sixth nuclear test, all in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, and may be fast advancing toward its well publicised goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.
Trump repeatedly has made clear his distaste for dialogue with North Korea. Last week, he dismissed the idea of talks as a waste of time, a day after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington was maintaining open lines of communication with Kim Jong-un’s government.
Trump is expected to visit Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines starting from November 3.


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Trump may visit DMZ during South Korea trip, putting him within metres of North’s soldiers

South Korean soldiers stand guard at the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korea. Panmunjom and the Observation Post Ouellette, both inside the DMZ, were among locations Trump was considering visiting next month. Photo: Reuters

FILE - In this April 17, 2017, file photo, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence looks at the North side from Observation Post Ouellette in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, South Korea. U.S. strikes earlier this month against Syria, coupled with President Donald Trump's dispatching of what he called an "armada" of U.S. warships to the Korean region, touched off fears that the United States was preparing for military action, though it was revealed this week that the flotilla was taking a roundabout path to Korean waters and has yet to arrive. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

US President Barack Obama (L) looks through binoculars towards North Korea from Observation Post Ouellette during a visit to the Joint Security Area of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) near Panmunjom on the border between North and South Korea on March 25, 2012. Obama arrived in Seoul earlier in the day to attend the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit to be held on March 26-27. AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB

Trump issues more cryptic threats to North Korea – in tweets

US President Donald Trump continued to make vague threats toward North Korea on Saturday, saying that diplomatic negotiations and agreements over the years have not worked. Photo: AFP

The photo, released by North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on November 25 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un touring the Sichon Museum of United States War Atrocities accompanied by his younger sister Kim Yo-jong. North Korean experts say the younger Kim, who is in her mid-twenties and attended school in Switzerland, has unlimited access to her brother, gets intelligence briefings and even handles government policy. Kim's visit to the anti-U.S. museum comes a week after a United Nations resolution condemned North Korea's human rights record.

US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters outside the White House prior to his departure aboard Marine One on October 7, 2017. During the exchange, President Trump called NBC News, "Fake News" after the news agency reported tension between Trump and US Secretary of State Rex Rex Tillerson. The President will travel to Greensboro, North Carolina this evening to participate in a roundtable discussion with Republican National Committee members. / AFP PHOTO / Alex EDELMAN

FILE - This undated file photo distributed by the North Korean government shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, at an undisclosed location in North Korea. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, an organization pushing for a global treaty to ban the cataclysmic bombs. The award of the $1.1-million prize The Geneva-based ICAN won the $1.1 million prize comes amid heightened tensions over both North Korea’s aggressive development of nuclear weapons and President Donald Trump’s persistent criticism of the deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)

Trump vs ‘Rocket Man’: what if North Korea is the problem, not Kim?

The verbal jousting like the one between the ‘frightened dog’ and Pyongyang exposes the dangers of personalising foreign policy

(FILES) This file photo taken on September 06, 2000 shows Cuban President Fidel Castro addressing the United Nations Millennium Summit. Cuban revolutionary icon Fidel Castro died late on November 25, 2016 in Havana, his brother, President Raul Castro, announced on national television. / AFP PHOTO / TOM MIHALEK

(FILES) In this April 25, 2013 former US Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush attend the George W. Bush Presidential Center dedication ceremony in Dallas, Texas. Former US presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush on August 16, 2017 issued a tough joint statement condemning racial bigotry and anti-Semitism, in a veiled rebuke of Donald Trump. On August 15, 2017, Trump sparked a political firestorm when he said that counter-protesters appeared to be equally to blame for violence over the weekend at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia."America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred in all forms," the father-son former presidents said in a statement issued from Kennebunkport, Maine, where they have a family home. / AFP PHOTO / JEWEL SAMAD

FILE PHOTO - Myanmar's Minister of Foreign Affairs Aung San Suu Kyi addresses the 71st United Nations General Assembly in Manhattan, New York, U.S. September 21, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

Hands up if you’re a trash talker. Photo: AP

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, addresses the delegates during the third day session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Wednesday, July 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A ‘Little Rocket Man’ and a ‘Frightened Dog’. Photo: AFP

North Korea considers missile attack on Guam, after Trump vows ‘fire and fury’ over nuke report

US intelligence report that Pyongyang has miniaturised nuclear warheads will prompt enhanced joint military operations by the US and allies, analysts say

This Friday, July 28, 2017, photo distributed by the North Korean government on Saturday, July 29, 2017, shows what was said to be the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea. The clear message after Friday’s late-night test, the second in a month of a missile that may be able to reach most of the U.S. mainland: Get used to this _ it’s the new normal. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

FILE PHOTO: Navy vessels are moored in port at the U.S. Naval Base Guam at Apra Harbor, Guam March 5, 2016. Major Jeff Landis,USMC (Ret.)/Naval Base Guam/Handout/File Photo via REUTERS. ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY

This picture taken on July 4, 2017 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 5, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) celebrating the successful test-fire of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 at an undisclosed location. South Korea and the United States fired off missiles on July 5 simulating a precision strike against North Korea's leadership, in response to a landmark ICBM test described by Kim Jong-Un as a gift to "American bastards". / AFP PHOTO / KCNA VIA KNS / STR / South Korea OUT / REPUBLIC OF KOREA OUT ---EDITORS NOTE--- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO/KCNA VIA KNS" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS THIS PICTURE WAS MADE AVAILABLE BY A THIRD PARTY. AFP CAN NOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, LOCATION, DATE AND CONTENT OF THIS IMAGE. THIS PHOTO IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY AFP. /

FILE PHOTO: Aircraft from Marine All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 533 stand on the runway at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam September 15, 2014. U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Robert Hicks/Handout/File Photo via REUTERS. ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGES WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY

This handout photo taken and released by the US Air Force on July 30 shows a US Air Force B-1B bomber receiving fuel during a 10-hour mission from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, into Japanese airspace and over the Korean Peninsula. Photo: AFP

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A trip to the DMZ would follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Barack Obama, and Vice-President Mike Pence – but tensions now are much higher


Donald Trump