South Korean soldiers standing guard in the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas in this file photo of visitors touring the area. - AFP
SEOUL: South Korea has halted tours of the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, officials said Thursday (Oct 23), ahead of a visit by US President Donald Trump to the peninsula.
Trump is expected in South Korea next Wednesday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Forum, and US media has reported officials from his administration have privately discussed setting up a meeting between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Trump has said he hopes to meet Kim again -- possibly this year -- while the North Korean leader said last month he had "fond memories" of Trump and was open to talks if Washington dropped its "delusional" demand that he give up his nuclear weapons.
The two leaders last met in 2019 for a surprise summit at Panmunjom in the Joint Security Area, the only place where soldiers from the two Koreas face each other on a regular basis.
"From late October to early November, there will be no unification ministry-operated special field trips to Panmunjom," Seoul's unification ministry, which handles fraught relations with the North, said in a statement sent to AFP.
The ministry had been operating a scaled-down tour of the JSA, which houses inter-Korean meeting buildings and a section of the border, for "policy customers".
Field trips were suspended in 2023 following a US soldier's unauthorised crossing into the North at the village.
The United Nations Command, which oversees security and tours for the area, declined to comment on "hypothetical scenarios".
Seoul has said a meeting between Washington and Pyongyang "cannot be ruled out".
Kim met Trump three times for high-profile summits during the US leader's first term.
But talks collapsed over just how much of its nuclear arsenal the North was willing to give up and what Pyongyang would get in return. - AFP
