Trump: N.K. leader called within 10 minutes after DMZ tweet

U.S. President Donald Trump (L) stands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un before they hold talks at the Freedom House on the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the two Koreas, on June 30, 2019. (Yonhap)

Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called him “within 10 minutes” after he tweeted an invitation to meet at the inter-Korean border in June.

Trump was talking about his use of Twitter as a messaging platform when he cited the tweet he sent to Kim on June 29 right before he traveled to South Korea.

“When I was flying to South Korea, I had the idea: You know what? I’m going to South Korea, right next to North Korea, right where the border, right near there,” he said in an interview with New Hampshire radio station WGIR.

“I said there was no way of anybody knows how to get Kim Jong-un … I put out a tweet: Hey, I’m going to South Korea. If you want to meet for a couple of minutes, let’s meet. And I put it out. And he was calling within 10 minutes.

“I mean, it’s the craziest thing. So it’s an incredible — And we had a good meeting. It’s an incredible way to communicate for me,” Trump added.

The tweet that led to the June 30 meeting between Trump and Kim inside the Demilitarized Zone on the inter-Korean border read: “While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!”

The two met for about an hour and agreed to restart working-level talks on denuclearizing the regime.

Those talks have yet to take place as North Korea has protested this month’s military exercises between South Korea and the U.S.

Since July 25, the regime has also conducted five rounds of short-range ballistic missile tests, but Trump has dismissed them all and insisted on continuing diplomacy with the regime.

“I look forward to seeing Kim Jong Un in the not too distant future!” he tweeted Saturday.

YONHAP