The location for an upcoming meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is adding a layer of political complication for the high-stakes sit-down, The New York Times reported.
There’s still no decision on where the expected meeting will take place, but Mongolia may wind up being the most practical solution.
“At least politically, the easiest place for everyone would be Mongolia and [capital city] Ulan Bator, because the Mongolians like to think of themselves as the Switzerland of Asia,” Joel Wit, a senior fellow at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, told the Times.
According to the Times, other less remote, more high-profile — but problematic — options would include:
- Sweden or Switzerland - both have a long history of hosting some of the most significant diplomatic achievements in history. But you need a plane to get there.
“We know he has a plane, but it’s an old plane,” Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst and National Security Council aide who worked on Korea issues, told the Times. “No one really knows if it works.”
And “he’s not going to fly commercial,” she added.
- Hawaii or Guam, the closest U.S. territory to North Korea, would almost certainly require a refueling stop or a borrowed plane — and that’s not an indignity Kim would accept, the Times reported.
- On the Korean Peninsula, the demilitarized zone — where the nearby Peace House in Panungom could serve as a meeting place — or the North capital of Pyongyang are both options. Both would let Kim do it in an easy drive, but for Trump, the setting might be a downer.
“You have to think from Trump’s perspective,” Terry said of Panmunjom. “It’s just not sexy.”
- Vietnam and Singapore are also possibilities, and better choices than China or Japan, according to the Times.
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