Donald Trump will not visit the DMZ, the heavily fortified border that divides North and South Korea, a White House official said Tuesday.
Every president since Ronald Reagan has visited the divide, a manmade tear in the Peninsula installed after the Korean War.
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Trump, who starts his 12-day tour of Asia in Japan next week, is too busy for the visit, the official said, adding, “It’s becoming a little bit of a cliché, frankly.”
Instead the president will visit Camp Humphreys, a U.S. military base 40 miles south of Seoul, and 50 miles south of the DMZ, where Trump’s presence could further stoked tensions between Washington and Pyongyang.
Kim Jong un’s regime has stepped up its push to become a nuclear-armed power in recent months, threatening to attack the U.S. mainland and its territories. Likewise, Trump said the U.S. military would “totally destroy North Korea” if American allies were attacked.
Both leaders have also traded personal barbs. Trump called Kim “rocket man” during a United Nations speech in September; Kim hit back, dismissing the New York tycoon as a “dotard.”
The insults continued over the weekend, with North Korean state-run media attacking Trump as “incurably mentally deranged,” and suggesting he “needs medicine.”
