South Korean soldiers stand guard at the Korean Demilitarized Zone’s Joint Security Area in May. (Aaron Kidd/Stars and Stripes)
South Korea has paused official tours of the Joint Security Area — a site shared with the North in the Demilitarized Zone — ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned visit to the Korean Peninsula.
Tours of the JSA — already limited to military officials, distinguished visitors and media — will be suspended from the end of October through early November, Ministry of Unification spokesperson Koo Byongsam said Monday at a news conference.
Koo said the ministry has “no specific information to disclose” about the decision and referred additional questions to United Nations Command, which oversees security and tours for the area.
The suspension may signal preparations for potential engagement between U.S. and North Korean leaders, the Yonhap News Agency reported Monday, citing unnamed government sources.
It also could be intended to deter North Korean provocations ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, or APC, scheduled for Oct. 29-Nov. 1 in the southeastern city of Gyeongju, Yonhap reported.
CNN, citing two unnamed sources, reported Saturday that the Trump administration has privately discussed the possibility of a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the summit. No serious logistical planning has taken place, and Trump’s earlier attempt to contact Kim this year went unanswered, the report said.
UNC spokesman Eun Chong Kim, in a Tuesday email to Stars and Stripes, didn’t address why the tours were suspended, but said the command would not comment on hypothetical scenarios.
“All JSA access requests are handled through established protocols to ensure safety and coordination,” he wrote.
Trump in June 2019 became the first sitting president to enter North Korea within the JSA when he crossed the Military Demarcation Line at Kim’s invitation. The two had previously met in Vietnam earlier that year and in Singapore in 2018.
During an Aug. 25 news conference in Washington with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Trump said he got along with Kim and hoped to arrange a meeting at the earliest opportunity.
Kim said last month he was open to meeting with Trump if Washington dropped its demand that Pyongyang give up its nuclear weapons, according to the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.
“If the U.S. abandons its absurd obsession on denuclearization, acknowledges the reality and seeks peaceful coexistence with us, there is no reason for us not to talk with the U.S.,” Kim was quoted as saying during a parliamentary session in Pyongyang. He also recalled his previous summits with Trump fondly.
Koo reiterated Monday that “the government has clarified several times that we strongly support the U.S.-North Korea dialogue” but did not provide further details.
Also known as Panmunjom — named after the village where the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement was signed — the JSA was once open to public tours but has been restricted since July 2023, when U.S. Army Pvt. Travis King crossed the Military Demarcation Line, the actual border between the two Koreas.
The Unification Ministry resumed tours for ministry personnel on Nov. 22, 2023, but suspended them eight days later after North Korean troops began rebuilding old guard posts and arming themselves along the border. Senior U.S. and foreign officials have continued to visit the JSA.
The ministry announced plans in March to resume public tours, but those plans did not materialize.
