SEOUL: US President Joe Biden is considering visiting the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas during his visit to Seoul later this week, informed sources said on Tuesday.

Biden is expected to arrive in Seoul on Friday, the day before his first meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, according to reports. According to the sources, the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, known as the DMZ, is one of the important areas Biden could visit during his three-day vacation.

During their visits to South Korea, former US presidents have visited the DMZ. Former President Ronald Reagan visited the zone in 1983. It was also visited by then-President Bill Clinton a decade later.

In 2002 and 2012, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama paid high-profile visits to the zone. In June 2019, Donald Trump visited the DMZ for the first time, meeting former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a historic trilateral meeting.

In 2017, Trump attempted to visit the DMZ via helicopter, but the trip was cancelled due to dense fog. In August 2001, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Biden visited the DMZ, and then again in December 2013, as Vice President.

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