New Delhi:
In a major embarrassment, US President Donald Trump on Sunday called his daughter Ivanka Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on stage and referred to them as "a beautiful couple, beauty and the beast" who work hard to bring the two leaders together. Trump was addressing the United States officials stationed at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek after his unprecedented meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
"Everybody was so happy and many people in North Korea were in tear. It is a big thing. We have a tremendous team of people who know how to do it. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is here... Come on stage... And come up on stage Ivanka Trump. What a beautiful couple, beauty and the beast," said Trump.
The statement comes hours after Trump met Kim in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea, making him the first sitting US president to set foot in the former enemy territory.
#WATCH South Korea: US President Donald Trump called his daughter Ivanka Trump & Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on stage, referring to them as "A beautiful couple, beauty and the beast" at the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, earlier today. pic.twitter.com/l0aWiNxLBL
— ANI (@ANI) June 30, 2019
Moments after becoming the only sitting US president to set foot inside North Korea, Trump brought Kim back over the dividing line for a meeting where they agreed to start working-level talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons.
Trump also said he had invited the young leader to the White House "anytime he wants to do it".
"It was an honour that you asked me to step over that line, and I was proud to step over the line," he told Kim.
As they sat down for discussions, Kim said their "handshake of peace" in a location that was "the symbol of the division of north and south" showed that "we are willing to put the past behind us." The impromptu meeting in the DMZ -- after Trump issued an invitation on Twitter on Saturday -- came with negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington at a deadlock.
Their first summit took place in a blaze of publicity in Singapore last year but produced only a vaguely worded pledge about denuclearisation. A second meeting in Vietnam in February intended to put flesh on those bones broke up without agreement.
Contact between the two sides has since been minimal -- with Pyongyang issuing frequent criticisms of the US position -- but the two leaders exchanged a series of letters before Trump issued his offer to meet at the DMZ.
Trump's entry onto North Korean soil -- which he said was uncertain until the last moment -- is an extraordinary sequel to the scene at Kim's first summit with Moon Jae-in last year, when the young leader invited the South Korean president to walk over the Military Demarcation Line, as the border is officially known.
