Updated May 01, 2018 00:52:39

Photo: The Peace House is on the south side of the border town of Panmunjom. (AP: Lee Jin-man, File)

US President Donald Trump has suggested his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could take place at the Peace House on the border between North and South Korea, the same site as Mr Kim's historic meeting last week with South Korea's President.

"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!" Mr Trump tweeted.

Mr Trump is expected to meet with Mr Kim in weeks, and said in an interview on Thursday that he was considering five locations for his summit with the North Korean leader, although he has said multiple times the talks may not happen.

The Peace House is in the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone, or DMZ, on the border between the two countries.

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The choices of a venue for the Trump summit also include neutral third countries like Singapore, but US officials have been sceptical that Mr Kim would be willing to travel far.

Last week, the leaders of North and South Korea met and pledged to end hostilities and work toward the "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula, seeming to increase the likelihood of the Trump-Kim summit.

A senior adviser to South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said last week that Seoul had a "comprehensive road map" that it was sharing with Washington before the summit between Mr Trump and Mr Kim.

If Mr Trump meets with Mr Kim at the DMZ, it will not be the first time the White House had planned a trip to that border.

On a 12-day trip to multiple Asian countries in November, Mr Trump visited South Korea, but a surprise visit to the DMZ was scrapped due to weather issues.

A war between the North and the South ended in July 1953 in a truce rather than an official peace treaty, meaning the two countries are still technically at war.

Pyongyang has said it would close its nuclear test site next month.

Reuters

Topics: world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, foreign-affairs, united-states, korea-democratic-peoples-republic-of, korea-republic-of, asia

First posted April 30, 2018 23:19:33