Shrouded in Secrecy, Trump’s DMZ Trip Is Foiled by Fog
8, 2017
Trump said that We’re going to have an exciting day tomorrow,
Moon, he was left waiting in vain for Mr. Trump to arrive at the DMZ for what White House officials said
would have been the first joint visit to the area by an American president and a South Korean president.
In the end, dense fog forced Marine One and the helicopter convoy accompanying the president to turn back, costing a frustrated Mr. Trump a potent visual
and leaving President Moon Jae-in of South Korea waiting at the DMZ for a commander in chief who would never arrive.
Having flirted publicly with the prospect that the president would visit the demilitarized zone while he was in Seoul, 35 miles to the south, White House officials had made a show of shooting down the idea, first saying
that Mr. Trump was unlikely to go, and later flatly ruling it out.
Moon did not want him to make the trip, officials said, perhaps worrying about allowing the famously unscripted Mr. Trump, who has insulted
Mr. Kim, the North Korean leader, as "Little Rocket Man," to a place where any errant remark would take on graver significance.
It was difficult to believe that Mr. Trump, a showman who makes little secret of his love of all things militaristic, would forego a chance to visit the site,
a staple of presidential trips to the region in the past, particularly during a trip dominated by talks about how to confront the threat from North Korea.
