North Korea: Trump cancels visit to DMZ and US pursues 'direct diplomacy'

The US is pursuing direct diplomacy with North Korea, according to a senior state department official, despite Trump’s public assertion that such talks are a waste of time.

Joseph Yun, US negotiator with North Korea has been in contact with diplomats at Pyongyang’s United Nations mission, said the official, at a time when an exchange of insults between US president and Kim Jong-un fueled fears of military conflict.

While US secretary of state Rex Tillerson said that he would  continue “diplomatic efforts… until the first bomb drops”, on 17 October, the comments were the clearest sign that the US was discussing issues beyond the release of American prisoners, despite Trump dismissing talks as pointless.

This comes at a time when Trump announced that he will not be visiting the armed border dividing the Korean peninsula during his tour of Asia next week.

The Korean demilitarized zone (Photo: Around this World)

This action breaks an American presidential tradition, intended to demonstrate Washington’s commitment to its South Korea allies, by standing on the North Korean frontier.

According to a senior US administration official, Trump, who begins his 12-day visit in Japan on Sunday, would be too busy to visit the demilitarized zone (DMZ).

“The president is not going to visit the DMZ, there is not enough time on the schedule”, said the official.

“It’s becoming a little bit of a cliché, frankly”, he added.

Trump’s presence near the border, which passes through the centre of the 2.5-mile wide, 155-mile-long strip of land would have carried significance at a time when regional tensions are high over the North’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

Instead, Trump will be meeting with US personnel and their families at Camp Humphreys, about 90km south of Seoul. The base was recently expanded and now serves as the new headquarters of the US 8th Army, the cornerstone of the US military presence in South Korea.

“No president has visited Camp Humphreys and we thought that that made more sense in terms of its messaging, in terms of the chance to address families and troops there,” the official said.

He added that by going to Camp Humphreys, Trump would be demonstrating Washington’s commitment to its alliance with the South. “The South Korean government paid the vast majority of the costs for building that base and repositioning some of the US forces and their families on the peninsula,” he said.