It has become the ultimate symbol of American resolve against the threat of North Korea: a visit by the U.S. commander in chief to “freedom’s frontier,” the heavily guarded demilitarized zone that has separated the North and South for 64 years.
Wearing bomber-style jackets, surrounded by military officers, peering through binoculars, all but one president since Ronald Reagan has gazed across the barren strip of land at the 38th parallel from an observation post — and been moved to talk tough. In April, Vice President Mike Pence, undertaking the same solemn ritual, said he toured the DMZ so the North Koreans could “see our resolve in my face.”
But as President Donald Trump prepares for a 12-day swing next month through five Asian nations to bolster international pressure on Pyongyang, the administration is divided over whether he should make the pilgrimage, an issue that remains unresolved. Some aides worry a visit could further inflame already heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, while others have expressed concern over Trump’s personal safety, according to people who have spoken to administration officials.
Asian foreign policy veterans of both the Obama and George W. Bush administrations said it would be foolish for Trump not to go. But the White House is facing opposition from South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s administration and the U.S. State Department over fears that a visit would ratchet up Trump’s war of words with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
A White House spokesman declined to comment, saying the administration was not ready to release the full itinerary for Trump’s trip, which is scheduled to last from Nov. 3 to Nov. 14.
Asked during a news conference this week whether a DMZ visit would provoke Pyongyang, Trump said the trip’s details were not finalized and added: “I didn’t hear in terms of provoking, but we will certainly take a look at that.”
Trump has already done plenty of provoking amid reports that North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs are making more rapid advances than expected. Trump has repeatedly mocked Kim as “Little Rocket Man,” and he declared during a United Nations speech last month that the United States is prepared to “totally destroy” the North if necessary.
Kim has responded with his own harsh rhetoric, he called Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard,” and by threatening to strike Guam and test a nuclear device over the Pacific Ocean.
Trump will have plenty of other chances to talk tough, starting with a tour of the Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii on his way to Asia. In Tokyo, the president is scheduled to meet with the parents of a Japanese girl kidnapped by North Korean agents four decades ago, and in Seoul, he will deliver a speech to the South Korean national assembly.
But current and former U.S. officials said a presidential visit to the DMZ sends a more pointed message to the American and South Korean troops who patrol the border region just 30 miles north of Seoul – as well as the enemies forces on the other side – that the United States remains committed to the bilateral defense treaty that has been in place since the armistice that halted fighting in the Korean War in 1953.
George H.W. Bush is the only president since Reagan toured the DMZ in 1983 not to visit, although Bush did make his own trip while serving as Reagan’s vice president.
Officials in Seoul and Tokyo are eager for Trump to reaffirm his commitment to the U.S. defense treaties with its East Asian allies. The president has unsettled Moon and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by criticizing U.S. trade imbalances with those nations, pulling out of a 12-nation Asia Pacific trade accord and demanding a renegotiation of a bilateral trade pact with South Korea that Obama signed in 2011.
At the same time, Moon’s advisers fear that a Trump visit to the DMZ could increase the chances of a miscalculation that could provoke a military confrontation or have other unintended consequences, such as harming Asian financial markets or disrupting planning for the Winter Olympics, which will be held in PyeongChang in February.
