Donald Trump won't visit DMZ during South Korea visit, says senior White House official

Washington: US president Donald Trump will not be going to the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the Korean Peninsula when he visits South Korea next week, a senior administration official said. The decision to skip the DMZ at a time of high tensions with nuclear-armed North Korea was attributed to time constraints. “The president is not going to visit the DMZ, there is not enough time in the schedule,” the official said. Trump, who departs Friday on a five-nation Asian tour with world attention on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, will instead visit Camp Humphreys, which is south of Seoul and away from the DMZ, the official said. The DMZ, a razor’s edge separating North and South Korean forces, is a common stop for visiting presidents and other high-level US officials wanting to see one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints. But the senior administration official downplayed the decision not to go. “We just had Defence Secretary James Mattis there last week, we had Vice-President Mike Pence there earlier this year,” the official said. “It’s becoming a little bit of a cliche, frankly.”