Possible sites for the meeting of President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have not been announced but speculation has already begun as a possible historic May meeting approaches.
Two places the two leaders will probably not meet are each other's capitals, according to USA Today. Concerned about the signals it could send, White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that Trump was unlikely to travel to Pyongyang, but added that nothing has been ruled out.
Kim, on the other hand, has never been outside of North Korea since becoming the country's leader, but attended boarding school at the International School Of Berne in Switzerland, according to London's Sunday Times.
On Monday, The New York Times listed seven possibilities.
1. The Demilitarized Zone — The village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas might be the most promising spot. The newspaper said occasional meetings have been held in a small conference room that straddles the dividing line in the Joint Security Area. The Peace House on the South Korean side of Panmunjom is a larger building possibly more suitable to a meeting between the two leaders. It is where North and South Korean representatives met there to plan the North's participation in the Winter Olympics last month in the South and a place Kim already had express a willingness to go to meet South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in.
2. Jeju Island, South Korea — The island's governor has offered it as a meeting place. The tourist destination has a small population, making security more manageable than a place like Seoul, South Korea's capital.
3. Beijing — China is North Korea's only significant ally and one of a few countries Kim's father, Kim Jong-il traveled to as North Korea's leader. China was the host to the so-called six-party talks a decade ago between North Korea and western allies.
4. Geneva — Neutral Switzerland has a history of hosting high-level meetings between rivals, like between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, the Times noted. Kim is familiar with the country from his days in boarding school.
5. Moscow — The newspaper said Russia has been an occasional destination for North Korean leaders in the past, if not Kim himself. He had planned to visit Moscow but canceled the trip in 2015 for events to marking the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the Times reported.
6. Stockholm — Since the U.S. does not have an embassy in North Korea, Sweden has often provided consular services for Americans there including meeting with citizens who are imprisoned in the North, per the Times. Sweden has also been the site of talks between North Korean officials and experts from the United States, South Korea and other countries.
7. Ulan Bator, Mongolia — Mongolia shares borders with Russia and China, has pursued a policy of neutrality in recent years and has good relations with the U.S. and North Korea.
The Associated Press mentioned that U.S. leaders have opted for places like Reykjavik, Iceland, Paris, and a ship near Malta, as sites for meetings between them and the Soviet Union in the past.
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