President Trump on Monday proposed a site in the long-treacherous demilitarized zone for his historic denuclearization talks with North Korea, as South Korea’s president promoted the idea of a Nobel Peace Prize for Mr. Trump.
In a phone call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, on social media and at a press conference, Mr. Trump suggested holding the talks at the Peace House in the DMZ, a no-man’s land buffer that has separated the two countries since an armistice was signed in 1953.
With the air of a showman, the president said the location would give rise to “a great celebration” if North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agrees to abandon nuclear weapons. CNN, citing an unnamed source, reported Monday night the North Korean leader likes Mr. Trump’s proposal.
“I threw it out today as an idea,” Mr. Trump said. “There’s something that I like about it because you’re there — you’re actually there. If things work out, there’s a great celebration to be had on the site, not in a third-party country.”
Mr. Trump is planning to meet with Mr. Kim within four weeks to negotiate the denuclearization of the perennially belligerent communist nation and abandonment of its ballistic missile program. Among the other sites being mentioned are Singapore and Mongolia.
“The good news — everybody wants us,” Mr. Trump said at a press conference in the Rose Garden. “It has the chance to be a big event.”
Mr. Moon endorsed Mr. Trump on Monday to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to denuclearize North Korea, a strategy that has included pressing for China’s cooperation on tougher international sanctions against its neighbor, coupled with more vocal military threats from the U.S.
“President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. What we need is only peace,” Mr. Moon told senior advisers in comments confirmed by a presidential Blue House official.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who met with Mr. Trump at the White House Monday, said he deserves plaudits for his efforts to bring stability to the Korean peninsula.
“President Trump deserves a great deal of credit for his statesmanly role in transforming so dramatically the course of events in that region,” Mr. Buhari said.
Mr. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize just nine months into his presidency, despite criticism that his efforts at promoting peace were mainly rhetorical.
At a Trump rally in Michigan Saturday night, supporters greeted the president with chants of “Nobel.”
“That’s very nice, thank you,” Mr. Trump responded. “I just want to get the job done.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, said liberals “would kill themselves” if Mr. Trump won a Nobel Prize for his work on ending hostilities with North Korea.
“President Trump, if he can lead us to ending the Korean War after 70 years and getting North Korea to give up their nuclear program in a verifiable way, deserves the Nobel Peace Prize and then some,” Mr. Graham told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. “It may be the first time the Nobel Peace Prize was given and there was mass casualties because I think a lot of liberals would kill themselves if they did that.”
He said the “bottom line is, by any objective measure what President Trump has done is historic.”
Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim pledged at a summit last week to end hostilities between their countries and work toward the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula.
A month ago, Mr. Trump secretly dispatched then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang to meet with Mr. Kim. The Senate confirmed Mr. Pompeo last week as secretary of State.
While momentum is building toward the Trump-Kim summit, the president reiterated Monday that he is well aware of North Korea’s history of breaking its commitments to the U.S. regarding denuclearization. He said he believes Mr. Kim so far is showing a good-faith effort.
“Kim Jong-Un … has been very open and very straightforward so far — I can only say, again, ’so far,’” the president said. “But he’s talking about getting rid of the [nuclear test] site, which was their big site. He’s talking about no research, no launching of ballistic missiles, no nuclear testing. And he has lived up to that for a long period of time, a longer period of time than anybody has seen.”
North Korea conducted a powerful underground nuclear test last September, and Mr. Kim ordered a series of missile launches throughout 2017. On April 21, North Korea said it would suspend those activities ahead of planned talks with South Korea and with Mr. Trump. The president said he’s optimistic that the summit will take place, although he reiterated he’s prepared to walk away from the negotiating table if the talks aren’t going well.
“Got to get rid of the nuclear weapons,” Mr. Trump said. “If it’s not a success, I will very respectfully leave. It’s very simple. I think it would be a great celebration if it works out well. And if it doesn’t work out well, that’s the way it goes.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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