the north korean soldiers were ambling around. there was an incredible palpable sense of tension is gone from that area. bigger picture here, there are the optics, and this will be a powerful optic. it is history, the first time the u.s. president to meet face-to-face with the north k korean leader, and there has been no progress on the actual denuclearization. steps taken to hem in the nuclear program. i m just going to take a beat here for a moment because i can see off in the distance, these are the president s helicopter, marine one, along with several others. the president, the u.s. president traveling here as well as the south korean president. it appears that they have something of an escort as well. they will be landing shortly. it s what s known as jsa, the joint security area here at the dmz. then the president s arrival, walking right up to the border there for that meeting with the north korean leader.
came back. we know that the u.s. president lauded that as he saw it. that is potentially something he is wishing to do as well. the president wanting to repeat that moment. there have been steps in recent months to lower the tensions along this, the most militarized border in the world, and you having visited where this meeting is taking place, tell us about those steps and what difference they make. we have been there many times over recent years, and it was always fairly tense. you would be given seven or eight minutes. you were not allowed to make eye contact with soldiers. the tourists were told, do not wave, do not make sharp movements. when i was there a few weeks ago, there s no arms, no weapons within the jsa, the helmets of the soldiers have been replaced. the guard posts have been shuttered up and when we were there, there were south korean tourists and on the other side of the border, there were north korean tourists and they were waving at each other, and nobody was con
on, without progress on denuclearization, doesn t mean that the north korean program stays in place. it is, as you said, making progress. advances in the missile system happens as the talk stall here. this meeting today, the expectation really to have the meeting happen. the president defining success tazz neegt taking place. this is not a negotiation today. it is simply a face-to-face hand shake, a hand shake at the border. a brief note about what s happening next year. the president a short time ago went to what s known as the observation post there where he could look across into north korea and look at the array of forces there defending the dmz. he s now gone down closer to the truce village where he ll be face-to-face with the forces. u.s. forces deployed in south
landing here at the dmz, marine one, his helicopter in the air on route from seoul. joined here at the dmz with paula hancock has covered this story for a number of years. let s talk about the schedule over the next hour. he ll land a short distance from here. he ll go to the truce village as it s known along the border and what follows. what we re expecting is if it s going to be anything like when kim jong un met with the south korean president, he ll go to the truce village of panmunjom. this is the area where you see the blue huts, which in the past have had agreements between north and south korea, and then in the middle of that is the mdl, which is the effective border between north and south korea. what we saw when it was with the south korea president, the south korean president was waiting there, he watched kim jong un walk over to him, they shook hands, kim jong un presumably spontaneously said why don t you come over to north korea. he did, he stepped over and he
helicopter marine one land at the joint security area right at the border near the truce village where in a short time, president trump will meet with the north korean dictator, kim jong un, a historic first meeting between a sitting u.s. president and the leader of north korea right along the border here. this is the moment just a short time ago when president trump spoke of this meeting, which started with a tweet yesterday, just 24 hours ago, and now will become a reality. we re going to the dmz border, and i ll be meeting with chairman kim. i look forward to it very much. i look forward to seeing him. we have developed a very good relationship, and we understand each other, i do believe he understands me, and i think i maybe understand him. and sometimes that can lead to very good things. president trump went on to call this meeting just a first step, but he said possibly a step in the right direction. we re joined now by sam