think what you re kind of giving a head nod to is there s a lot of nothing you re look at for a greatlo expanse. 150 miles wide you were saying, some two miles deep. reporter: so the dmz, the demilitarized zone, is this band of territory set up after the korean war to prevent a resumption of hostilities. 2 1/2 miles wide, 160 excuse me. 160 miles across. and 2 1/2 miles deep. and it is an area that are multiple structures,th multiple guard towers.s, there are an estimated 1 million landmines still in the area. lots and lots of barbed wire. on one side, the side where i am right tnow, you have 30,000 roughly american troops and the south korean army. on the other side you have the north u korean army. and then critically artillery pieces. thousands if not tens of thousands of north thkorean
so when the president says that the short-rangeth missiles that north korea fires don t really matter, he only cares about the long-range ones, that s not really t accurate because those short-range ones pose a threat to u.s. citizens who live in japan, korea, and then if you talk about interimmediate yacht-range ballistic missiles as far as hawaii and guam. those things matter as well. so these are a real threat. i mean, these are not these are a threat and they continue to grow. and meeting the north korean leader at the dmz when none of this stuff has been resolved is like saying you won the super bowl without playing the game. there s been no progress actually in nuclear talks, and the crowningpr achievement of a actual agreement would be the thing that they re about to do, which is the two leaders meeting at the dmz. but this is all being done backwards, if you will, in that they re trying to claim victory for things that have not yet happened. the old fake it until you make i
heard the criticism before that president trump would like to have this visit with kim jong un to zraktd frdistract from otherl issues that are brewing at hom, something you are very much in tune with. what s been the response to that from the administration and been the talk, if you will, about this being potentially of that criticism? reporter: well, the administration thinks that they a lot of that talk, which is why you see so much direct engagement from the president. you saw an 80-minute press conference. you see the white house actively using social media to try to talk directly to their supporters. you see it in the t president s rallies. the white house social media team has already tweeted out a video of the president s view from the helicopter on marine one leaving seoul heading up to the dmz. so they ree clearly aware of their ability to shape the narrative hans, i want to interrupt. coming out of the summit yeah. i just want to interrupt.
korean war. generally, u.s. presidents come here to pay.s respects, to hono the sacrifice, to see the conflict that never truly ended. the korean war still lives on in many ways in the dmz because you have these built-up forces on either side you have these built-up military zones on either side of the dmz with their guns pointed at each other and there s always this fear that should thingser escalate, should things go wrong in a very short amount of time it could start firing guns. the dmz frankly was set up to do exactly what we are seeing right now. was set up as a neutral area for hostile parties, for belligerents to come together in a protected space right on the bordersp and engage in negotiations and this has never been t done before. u.s. presidents have come to the dmz. like i tsaid, mostly for the historic value to pay tribute