Seoul: Pyongyang not a possible U.S.-North Korea summit venue

0 0 May 2, 2018 Edit this post

A general view of a new Ryo Myong street in Pyongyang, North Korea, 12 April 2017. North Koreans prepare to celebrate the 'Day of the Sun Festival', 105th birthday anniversary of former North Korean supreme leader Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang on 15 April. File photo by EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG

By Jennie Oh, UPI

South Korea's presidential office says Pyongyang wasn't among the list of possible venues for the upcoming U.S.-North Korea summit, during President Moon Jae-in and U.S. leader Donald Trump's phone conversation on Saturday.

A senior presidential official told reporters Wednesday that out of the two to three venues the two leaders discussed, "Pyongyang wasn't mentioned" and there hadn't been talk on "where the North Korea would prefer" to hold the summit, Yonhap reported.

When asked about the possibility of the Trump-Kim meeting being held at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, the official said he didn't know and suggested the U.S. president would announce the location in a few days.

Trump, this week, appeared to show enthusiasm about holding the summit talks in Panmunjom, where the inter-Korean summit took place last week.

On whether Moon and Trump had talked about a declaration to end war on the Korean Peninsula, during their 75-minute phone call, the senior official said the issue hadn't been discussed but that the U.S. president had first mentioned "ending war."

The two Koreas are still technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a ceasefire, not a peace treaty.

Trump has expressed support for the two Korea's move to end war, which was stated in their Panmunjom Declaration on Friday.

The U.S.-North Korea summit is expected to be held in the next three to four weeks, Trump said last week.