peace. but the backdrop being hundreds of north korean artillery pointed at the south principally kargting seoul, some with keps and now a nuclear armed north korea, placing south korea under threat. that is the fact of the standoff, the 66-year standoff between these two countries, where you now have a u.s. president waiting to meet the leader of north korea. there s a remarkable juxtaposition of that threat, that danger and what will be at least on the surface, smiles and a hand shake between the north korean leader and the u.s. president. jim acosta has been traveling with the president. jim, it was interesting in the moment so far up here at the border as the president prepares to meet kim, i counted three or four times where the president took a swipe at the press,
sparked this whole idea which is now in a short time going to become a reality. how surprised were they about it? perhaps how stressed were they by the prospect of making this a reality and how would the north koreans reacted to that? certainly, jim, i think there s no denying that it probably caught everybody off guard, including the south koreans. this is something that the south korean president moon jae-in has been wanting. so obviously delighted. we heard from him speaking at the blue house behind us before setting off for the dmz that if trump meets with kim, it would be a nile stone for humankind. you have to assume it s slightsly overreaching, but it gives you a sense of how important this moment is to south korea. they have been pushing for peace
there is two issues, denuclearization and peace. so now, you know, he s getting into the north korean fair tifr, which is that we must have baes before we have denuclearization. why the american position has always been that we must have denuclearization first before we have peace. so this is the two two things, two important factors there are and you can see that increasing president trump is buying into north korean idea that yes, let s build peace before denuclearization and that s not been the american goal nor has it been the south korean goal. they ve always felt that as long as nuclear weapons, north koreans have nuclear weapons,
and now joint security area is being transformed from the symbol of confrontation and hostilities to a symbol of peace and all of you are actually witnesses to this great change. [ speaking foreign language ] and the very person who has actually brought this change about is, of course, president trump. [ speaking foreign language ] he is the president of all of you. [ applause ] i want too thank you very much. you re a special group of people. i look at you, look how healthy