Panmunjeom strong candidate as venue for North Korea-US summit

President Moon Jae-in holds a phone call with US President Donald Trump.

Trump mentions House of Peace and House of Freedom as possible sites in Tweet after 75-minute phone call with President Moon

Panmunjeom, which was the site of the inter-Korean summit on Apr. 27, is also becoming a strong contender for the site of the North Korea-US summit in May. That would make it very likely that the inter-Korean summit, the North Korea-US summit and a trilateral summit involving all those parties would be held successively at Panmunjeom, meaning that all the symbolic work for declaring the end of the Korean War and establishing a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula would take place on the peninsula itself.

US President Donald Trump mentioned the House of Peace and the House of Freedom on the southern side of Panmunjeom as possible sites for his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a Tweet on the morning of Apr. 30. This was after a 75-minute phone call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Apr. 28. During the phone call, according to the Blue House, Moon and Trump had a serious conversation about the site of the North Korea-US summit. In a press briefing about the call, the Blue House announced that the two leaders had narrowed the options down to two or three sites. “The two leaders exchanged opinions about the pros and cons of each site, and Moon had a few ideas of his own. The sites aren’t in North Korea or the US,” a senior official at the Blue House said.

The House of Peace on the South Korean side of Panmunjeom, a village that straddles the border between South and North Korea and where the Inter-Korean Summit was held on Apr. 27, has been spotlighted as a viable candidate for the North Korea-US Summit in May. (By Kim Gyoung-ho, senior reporter)

Given Trump’s tweet, it is very likely that Moon made a strong case for Panmunjeom during their phone call. And considering Trump’s penchant for surprise announcements, the fact that he has specifically mentioned the House of Peace and the House of Freedom among several candidates gives reason to conclude he has basically already made up his mind.

The House of Peace is the building at Panmunjeom where Moon and Kim held their summit on Apr. 27, while the House of Freedom, which is 130m away from the House of Peace, is a building facing Panmungak, a pavilion located across the military demarcation line on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom. If the choice is between these two buildings, the House of Peace is the more likely option, in light of its facilities.

In regard to the location of the North Korea-US summit, Trump said on Apr. 17 that five places, excluding the US, were being considered, and after his summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House on Apr. 27, he said that “We’re down to two countries as to a site.” During that time, the media in the US and other countries have run a series of reports about candidates including Singapore, Mongolia and Switzerland.

Analysts have suggested that Trump would not prefer Panmunjeom as the meeting site because it was already in the spotlight during the inter-Korean summit on Apr. 27, and because Americans have unpleasant memories about the “axe murder incident” (when two US Army officers were killed by North Korean soldiers) that occurred there in 1976.

The reason that Trump nevertheless personally mentioned Panmunjeom as a possible site appears to have resulted from his consideration of a number of factors, including the fact that Panmunjeom symbolizes the division and reconciliation of the Korean Peninsula and the fact that vehicular transportation for the two leaders would be easy from base camps in Seoul and Pyongyang (or Kaesong).

Speaking at a campaign rally in Washington, Michigan, on Apr. 28 for the US midterm elections, President Trump mentioned that the North Korea-US summit could take place “over the next three or four weeks.” (EPA)

Trump also appears to have reassured himself that Panmunjeom would be a convenient place for a summit while observing the summit that occurred between Moon and Kim, which was broadcast live around the world. And given Trump’s priority on entertainment value, he probably took note of the fact that CNN and other major channels broadcast the inter-Korean summit live all day long. The reason that Trump broached the idea of holding the summit at Panmunjeom just two days after hearing a detailed explanation from Moon about the results of the inter-Korean summit can be seen as evidence that Trump also feels confident about the content of the North Korea-US summit.

After Trump’s summit with Kim, which is expected to be held in May, and before the end of the year there will probably be a trilateral meeting between South Korea, North Korea and the US, or even a quadrilateral meeting that would also include China in order to convert the armistice agreement into a peace treaty. That means it would only be natural for the major efforts to establish a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula to take place at Panmunjeom.

By Hwang Joon-bum, staff reporter

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