WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un be held in the truce village that straddles the border separating the two Koreas.

Trump revealed last week that two or three locations were under consideration for the historic summit — which would be the first between a sitting US president and a leader of North Korea — but this is the first time he has publicly named a potential site.

“Numerous countries are being considered for the MEETING, but would Peace House/Freedom House, on the Border of North & South Korea, be a more Representative, Important and Lasting site than a third party country? Just asking!” Trump tweeted.

Possible locations for the historic encounter reportedly include Singapore, Mongolia and Switzerland.

The Peace House in Panmunjom — the village in the Demilitarized Zone where the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War was signed — was where Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met on Friday in a major step towards easing tension on the flashpoint peninsula.

Kim, the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the armistice, walked with Moon to the Peace House on the southern side of the border for their meeting.

Preparations for a Trump-Kim summit have gathered further momentum since Friday’s summit, which saw North and South Korea promise to pursue the complete denuclearization of the peninsula and a permanent peace.

Trump for Nobel Peace Prize

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday played down the prospect of winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his historic summit with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, saying Donald Trump can have it instead.

Friday’s summit between Moon and Kim has been hailed as a major step towards easing tension on the flashpoint peninsula.

It was the third summit between the two Koreas following meetings between Kim’s late father Kim Jong Il and late South Korean presidents Kim Dae-Jung and Roh Moo-Hyun, in 2000 and 2007 respectively. Kim Dae-jung won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his role in the first summit. His widow, in a congratulatory message sent on Monday, told Moon she hoped he could also win the prize, set to be announced in October.

“President Trump can take the Nobel prize. All we need to take is peace,” Moon said in response.

Trump on Saturday touted his ability to achieve a nuclear deal with the North’s regime at a campaign-style rally in Michigan, grinning and nodding as his supporters chanted “Nobel! Nobel!” Moon — whose humble personality ende­a­red himself to South Korean voters — has sought to play the role of a peace broker between the two mercurial leaders of the isolated North and the US, a major ally of the South.

Major UK bookmaker Coral has Kim and Moon as favourites to win the Nobel Peace Prize — with odds of 4/6 — followed by Trump and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees both with odds of 10/1.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2018