Trump & Kim Jong Un Suddenly Met in DMZ for a Handshake After a Tweet

We’ve all experienced this: finding time to meet up with friends after you’ve started full-time work isn’t just difficult, but almost impossible.

And with social media, we’ve now resorted to knowing our friends’ lives through the pixels on our phone.

If you still think that way, then you should learn from Donald Trump, the US President who lives on four to five hours of sleep daily, and Kim Jong Un, the North Korea leader who allegedly put people to sleep.

Because unlike you and your friends, they set up a meet-up within 24 hours.

Singapore, Vietnam Then Korea(s)

By now, you should know about the iconic meeting between the two leaders about a year ago in Singapore.

We were given mere weeks to prepare for the summit and that was considered a very tight deadline: eventually, it went without a hitch and everyone now knows that Singapore isn’t part of China (except for the marketing folks from Coffee Bean Singapore).

A very ambiguous deal (more of just a “pledge”) to denuclearize North Korea was signed, and because of its vagueness, another summit was planned in Vietnam earlier this year.

However, that meeting was cut short and no agreement was made.

To simplify things, here’s what happened: the US wants North Korea to denuclearize that’s verifiable (not just a blue tick but for third parties to go in and check), but North Korea wants all sanctions (i.e. punishment to the country by not allowing trade) to be lifted.

Relationship between the two leaders, at least based on what they said, is still good.

Well, this latest handshake has kind of confirmed that.

Sudden Meeting

Trump was in the G20 summit in Japan, and had flown to South Korea after that for talks with South Korea President Moon Jae-kit on late Saturday.

And as he flew over, he sent this Tweet:

After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). 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(?)!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2019

In case you can’t read:

After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). 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(?)!

Lest you’re not aware, President Trump has a habit of Tweeting his unfiltered thoughts on Twitter. I was pretty sure that was just another Tweet that we’d once again forget and one that Trevor Noah would make fun of in YouTube.

But hey: turns out North Korea leadership do read his Tweets as well.

Over in North Korea, state news agency KCNA said that a senior North Korean official said that it was a “very interesting suggestion” but they hadn’t received any official proposal.

Then, the unexpected happened: it’s confirmed that the two leaders would meet at the DMZ, a heavily guarded border that separates the North and the South. As it is also a tourists’ attraction, the area is closed for the historic event.

Why is it historic, you might ask.

Before April 2018, North Korea was doing all kinds of missile tests, and world leaders were worried. But all of a sudden, Kim Jong Un did a U-turn and became friend-friend with everyone.

And this was the first step, when both the North and South Korea leaders took turns to step into each other’s countries without chopping passport:

So, when Trump and Kim decided to meet at the DMZ, it was historic not only because two busy men found time for a handshake; it was also the first time that a sitting US President has stepped into North Korea.

They both shook hands for a photo op, and Chairman Kim admitted that he’d never expected to meet Trump at this place, though the DMZ was one of the shortlisted locations for the summits.

Trump said after the handshake, “This was a special moment, this is I think really – as President Moon said – this is a historic moment, the fact that we’re meeting.

“I want to thank Chairman Kim for something else. When I put out the social media notification, if he didn’t show up the press was going to make me look very bad, so you made us both look good and I appreciate it.

“But we developed a great relationship, I really think that if you go back two and a half years and you look at what was going on prior to my becoming president, it was a very, very bad situation, a very dangerous situation for South Korea, for North Korea, for the world.”

Of course, no deal was made, but they’ve proven a more important point for us:

You always have time for a meet-up with friends. Just ask Bro-Bro Trump and Kim.