PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) — With wide grins and a historic handshake, President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un met at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone on Sunday and agreed to revive talks on the pariah nation’s nuclear program. Trump, pressing his bid for a legacy-defining deal, became the first sitting American leader to step into North Korea.

The moment President Trump meets Chairman Kim at the DMZ and becomes the first sitting President to enter North Korea: pic.twitter.com/VwqGAEmmxz

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 30, 2019

What was intended to be an impromptu exchange of pleasantries turned into a 50-minute meeting, another historic first in the yearlong rapprochement between the two technically warring nations. It marked a return to face-to-face contact between the leaders after talks broke down during a summit in Vietnam in February. Significant doubts remain, though, about the future of the negotiations and the North’s willingness to give up its stockpile of nuclear weapons .

The border encounter was a made-for television moment. The men strode toward one another from opposite sides of the Joint Security Area and shook hands over the raised patch of concrete at the Military Demarcation Line as cameras clicked and photographers jostled to capture the scene.

After asking if Kim wanted him to cross, Trump took 10 steps into the North with Kim at his side, then escorted Kim back to the South for talks at Freedom House, where they agreed to revive the stalled negotiations.

The spectacle marked the latest milestone in two years of roller-coaster diplomacy between the two nations. Personal taunts of “Little Rocket Man” (by Trump) and “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” (by Kim) and threats to destroy one other have given way to on-again, off-again talks, professions of love and flowery letters.

“I was proud to step over the line,” Trump told Kim as they met in on the South Korean side of the truce village of Panmunjom. “It is a great day for the world.”

Kim hailed the moment, saying of Trump, “I believe this is an expression of his willingness to eliminate all the unfortunate past and open a new future.” Kim added that he was “surprised” when Trump issued an unorthodox meeting invitation by tweet on Saturday.

Trump had predicted the two would greet one another for about “two minutes,” but they ended up spending more than an hour together. The president was joined in the Freedom House conversation with Kim by his daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, both senior White House advisers.

Substantive talks between the countries had largely broken down after the last Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi, which ended early when the leaders hit an impasse.

The North has balked at Trump’s insistence that it give up its weapons before it sees relief from crushing international sanctions. The U.S. has said the North must submit to “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization” before sanctions are lifted.

As he announced the resumptions of talks, Trump told reporters “we’re not looking for speed. We’re looking to get it right.”

He added that economic sanctions on the North would remain. But he seemed to move off the administration’s previous rejection of scaling back sanctions in return for piecemeal North Korean concessions, saying, “At some point during the negotiation things can happen.”

Peering into North Korea from atop Observation Post Ouellette, Trump told reporters before he greeted Kim that there had been “tremendous” improvement since his first meeting with the North’s leader in Singapore last year.

Trump claimed the situation used to be marked by “tremendous danger” but “after our first summit, all of the danger went away.”

But the North has yet to provide an accounting of its nuclear stockpile, let alone begin the process of dismantling its arsenal.

The latest meeting, with the U.S. president coming to Kim, represented a striking acknowledgement by Trump of the authoritarian Kim’s legitimacy over a nation with an abysmal human rights record.

Trump told reporters he invited the North Korean leader to the United States, and potentially even to the White House.

“I would invite him right now,” Trump said, standing next to Kim. Speaking through a translator, Kim responded that it would be an “honor” to invite Trump to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang “at the right time.”

Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to meet with the leader of the isolated nation last year when they signed an agreement in Singapore to bring the North toward denuclearization.

In the midst of the DMZ gathering, Trump repeatedly complained that he was not receiving more praise for de-escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula through his personal diplomacy with Kim. Critics say Trump had actually inflamed tensions with his threats to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea, before embracing a diplomatic approach.

North Korea’s nuclear threat has not been contained, according to Richard Haas, president of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. He tweeted Sunday that the threat of conflict has subsided only because the Trump administration has decided it can live with North Korea’s “nuclear program while it pursues the chimera of denuclearization.”

Every president since Ronald Reagan has visited the 1953 armistice line, except for George H.W. Bush, who visited when he was vice president. The show of bravado and support for South Korea, one of America’s closest military allies, has evolved over the years to include binoculars and bomber jackets.

While North Korea has not recently tested a long-range missile that could reach the U.S., last month it fired off a series of short-range missiles . Trump has brushed off the significance of those tests, even as his own national security adviser, John Bolton, has said they violated U.N. Security Council resolutions.

GREENE COUNTY—One person died in an accident just before 6:30p.m. Saturday in Greene County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol a 2006 Honda Ridgeline driven by Bryan T. Clark, 49, Ozark, was southbound on Highway 13 three miles north of Springfield.

The vehicle traveled off the road and struck a rock bluff

EMS transported Clark to Mercy Hospital in Springfield where he died. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.

TOPEKA, KAN. – A Kansas man was sentenced this week to 12 years in federal prison for trafficking in methamphetamine, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Charles Wesley Clearwater, 32, Topeka, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. In his plea, he admitted he sold methamphetamine to investigators working undercover several times. A search warrant served at his home in the 1600 block of S.W. Western Avenue turned up eight firearms that Clearwater used in furtherance of drug trafficking.

McAllister commended the Drug Enforcement Administration and Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Hough for their work on the case. This case was prosecuted as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods program.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas agricultural officials are considering a quarantine to slow the spread of an invasive plant that’s threatening the state’s native grasses.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture recently sought public input on a plan to quarantine invasive yellow and Caucasian bluestem grasses. The varieties have invaded all but three counties in Kansas.

Declaring the quarantine would prohibit the movement of all seeds, plants or parts of bluestem grasses within Kansas or across the border into the state.

The move could affect some ranchers who rely on the species when cutting hay to feed livestock.

Ron Klataske, executive director of environmental nonprofit Audubon of Kansas, expressed support for the proposal, saying bluestems are both difficult and expensive to eradicate.

“It has a dramatic detrimental impact,” Klataske said. “It basically destroys all native plants.”

He said bluestems are inferior to native grasses in terms of livestock forage, erosion control and wildlife habitat.

Kansas Livestock Association Attorney Aaron Popelka acknowledged that bluestem grasses pose a threat to the state’s biodiversity. But Popelka said the livestock group opposes the plan because it could economically hurt producers.

He said the quarantine would prevent hauling hay containing the invasive bluestems, affecting farmers and ranchers in areas where the grasses aren’t posing a big challenge.

Popelka said most of the bluestem grasses “came from the (state) Department of Transportation allowing it to be seeded along roadways.”

He said producers shouldn’t be forced to deal with a problem largely manufactured by the government.

Popelka instead suggested that the state blocks the sale and planting of bluestem seeds in Kansas. He also said the state could list bluestems as a noxious weed. The label would allow the plant to be managed on a county-by-county basis.

The Department of Agriculture doesn’t have a timeline to decide on the quarantine, according to officials.

By JOHN HANNA

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A dispute is escalating in Kansas between top Republicans and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration over a policy change making it easier for adults who are not working to keep receiving food assistance.

The state Department for Children and Families on Friday released an internal analysis defending the legality of the change, made in May. The department has said the change will help the homeless and young adults aging out of state’s foster care system and that recipients could receive extended benefits through September.

The agency released its analysis in responding to a letterearlier this week from Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt. He told the department’s top administrator, Secretary Laura Howard, that the change “appears to conflict” with a 2015 state law setting tougher rules for food and cash assistance.

Top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature contend the change violates the 2015 law, which included a work requirement and have promised that a committee will review the issue later this year.

House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said Friday that the department’s legal analysis does not change his mind. He said a lawsuit to block the change “certainly is a possibility,” though a spokesman for Schmidt said only that his office is reviewing the response.

“There’s an intent out there that they were not to skirt the work requirement in any way, and we’re going to continue to press that,” Hawkins said.

The federal government pays for food assistance and covers half of each state’s administrative costs. It generally limits able-bodied adults age 18 to 49 without dependents to three months of assistance within a three-year period if they aren’t working or enrolled in job training.

The 2015 state law specifies the same policy and says the department can’t ask the federal government for a waiver or start a program to avoid the rule. The law codified stricter policies for food and cash assistance that former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration set, making them harder to undo.

The federal government gives states some flexibility to grant exemptions to extend food assistance month by month to people who are about to lose it because they aren’t working. Spokesman Mike Deines said the agency expects to grant about 16,000 extensions through September, each good for one month for one adult, with some recipients receiving three.

The agency’s legal analysis said it is not seeking a waiver of federal rules and, “ascribing to ‘program’ its ordinary and common meaning, the one-time grant of an additional three months of benefits does not fit.”

Kelly was a state senator before becoming governor in January and strongly opposed the 2015 law. The measure gained national attention for telling families they can’t use cash assistance to attend concerts, get tattoos, see a psychic or buy lingerie, with the list of don’ts amounting to several dozen items.

Critics like Kelly contend Brownback’s welfare policies punished poor families. DCF announced this week that it is loosening a work requirement for people receiving state childcare subsidies to cover another 3,000 kids. So far, Republicans are not contesting its legality.

“This is a first step in repairing the safety net that was pulled from vulnerable Kansans during the previous eight years,” the governor said.

Hawkins said Kelly has made her opposition to work requirements clear, but taxpayers don’t want people who can work “just living off of the government.” Republicans argue that the stricter rules promote self-sufficiency.

“We want to help the people that honestly need help, but if you can work, go to work,” he said.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri’s College of Agriculture Food and Natural Resources has received an $8.6 million federal grant for a new research center.

The university announced Wednesday that it had received the grant from the National Institute of Health. The five-year grant will go toward the Swine Somatic Genome Editing Center, where researchers from across the country will use wild pigs to develop delivery methods for gene-editing compounds.

The Columbia Missourian reports the center is the latest addition to NIH’s Somatic Cell Gene Editing Consortium, which researches tools for genome editing in human patients.

The center will operate out of an existing university research facility after it is renovated to meet federal standards.

By STEPHEN KORANDA

Build higher, build stronger — it pays off big in Kansas.

Disaster mitigation investments in Kansas yielded more savings than efforts in any other state, a new study found. The Pew Charitable Trusts listed Missouri as a close second.

The report shows that every dollar spent in Kansas to protect against flood and tornado damage saved $6.81. In Missouri each dollar saved $6.72.

“The takeaway for policy makers really should be that investing in mitigation saves,” said Colin Foard, one of the authors of the study.

The savings come from avoiding property repairs, casualties, disruptions to businesses and administrative expenses related to insurance.

The findings come at a time when Kansas residents are dealing with floodingaffecting most of the state and cleaning up from recent tornadoes.

The study looked at the continental U.S. and considered mitigation programs aimed at averting costs from earthquakes, fires, floods and wind damage.

The mitigation efforts in Kansas and Missouri addressed only the threats of wind and flooding, but those projects had such a large payback that the two states topped the rankings.

The smallest payback was in earthquake- and fire-prone California, but the study still estimated that every dollar of mitigation in the Golden State saved $3.26.

Mitigation can include adding storm shelters and structural updates to buildings that reduce damage from tornadoes. When it comes to combating floods, officials can remove structures from flood-prone areas or require building structures higher to avoid flood damage.

Over the 23-year period that was examined, the report found the state and federal government spent around $220 million dollars on wind and flood mitigation in Kansas, which netted about $1.5 billion dollars in savings.

Federal programs play a major role in disaster mitigation in Kansas and elsewhere.

“The mitigation projects that the Kansas Division of Emergency Management are able to support or implement are largely reliant on the federal grants,” said Bryan Murdie, director of the Planning and Mitigation Branch at the Kansas Division of Emergency Management.

Looking ahead, state officials are turning their attention to the new National Mitigation Investment Strategy, developed in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. That storm hit the East Coast in 2012 causing $65 billion in damage. The program is still in the draft stage, but Murdie expects it will go live soon.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency describes the strategy as a broader shift to preventing damage and loss from disasters.

The strategy will include investments in larger infrastructure improvements such as levees. The range of projects will also include smaller local improvements such as installing warning sirens and demolishing buildings in flood-prone areas.

Murdie said state officials hope to have assistance in the future for Kansans to upgrade their homes.

“Our office has begun the initial steps towards a residential safe room program that will help protect the citizens of Kansas,” Murdie said in an email.

The federal programs typically include a match that must be paid by the state or the local government receiving the grant. Those local matches are often 25 percent, but can be smaller in certain cases where the community is impoverished or the program is targeting an area that’s been repeatedly flooded.

Foard said it’s worth it for governments to find ways to fit mitigation costs into their budgets.

“This analysis shows that it can be a great return on investment for the money spent.”

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for the Kansas News Service.. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda or email skoranda (at) ku (dot) edu.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A man who was found at a Kansas storage unit with his dismembered wife’s remains and two of their children has been sentenced to nearly nine years in prison.

Thirty-six-year-old Justin Rey was sentenced Friday for child endangerment, contributing to a child’s misconduct and sexual exploitation of a child. The exploitation charges stem from sexually explicit photos of teenagers found on his phone.

Rey hasn’t been charged in the death of his wife, Jessica Monteiro Rey, who died after giving birth in October 2017 at a Kansas City, Missouri, hotel. Rey told authorities both that she killed herself and that she died of childbirth complications. The coroner couldn’t determine her cause of death.

Rey also is charged with abandonment of a corpse in Missouri and with a California homicide.

SHAWNEE COUNTY —One person died in an accident just before 9a.m. Friday in Shawnee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a semi tanker truck driven by  Johnnie Robert Odell, 50, Buckner, Mo., was eastbound on Interstate 470 in Topeka.

The semi traveled onto the outside shoulder, collided with the barrier wall. It traveled into the ditch, struck a tree and caught fire.

Odell was pronounced dead at the scene. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Latest on a dispute between the Missouri state health department and a St. Louis clinic over the clinic’s license to perform abortions (all times local):

12:20 p.m.

Planned Parenthood and its supporters are celebrating an order by a Missouri commissioner to protect abortion services while a fight over the state’s only clinic plays out.

An administrative hearing commissioner on Friday granted a stay that will allow the St. Louis Planned Parenthood affiliate to continue abortions past Friday. A court order allowing abortions to continue at the clinic was set to expire at that time.

A spokesman for attorneys representing the state says they’re reviewing the order to determine their next steps.

A hearing on whether the clinic should have its abortion license renewed is set for Aug. 1.

___

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri commissioner on Friday ruled that the state’s only abortion clinic can continue providing the service at least until August as a fight over its license plays out, adding that there’s a “likelihood” that the clinic will succeed in the dispute.

Administrative Hearing Commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi granted what’s called a “stay,” which will allow the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic to continue providing abortions past Friday.

The state health department last week refused to renew the clinic’s license, but a St. Louis judge issued a court order allowing the procedure to continue through Friday.

St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer wrote in his ruling that the order would give Planned Parenthood time to take their case to the Administrative Hearing Commission, where Stelzer said the licensing fight must begin.

The Administrative Hearing Commission scheduled a hearing on whether the state was right to not renew the license Aug. 1 in St. Louis.

The state has said concerns about the clinic arose from inspections in March. Among the problems health department investigators have cited were three “failed abortions” requiring additional surgeries and another that led to life-threatening complications for the mother, The Associated Press previously reported , citing a now-sealed court filing.

The Department of Health and Senior Services wants to interview physicians involved in those abortions, including medical residents who no longer work there. Planned Parenthood has said it can’t force them to talk.

The interviews are a major sticking point in the fight over the clinic’s license, and attorneys for the health department wrote in legal filings to the commission that physicians’ refusal to talk “presents the final, critical obstacle.”

But Dandamudi wrote that the physicians’ stonewalling “in itself does not constitute a failure to comply with licensure requirements.”

“Because DHSS relies substantially on the lack of these interviews as grounds for denial, we find there is a likelihood that Petitioner will succeed in its claim,” Dandamudi wrote in his order granting a stay, referring to the clinic and its effort to stay open.

Planned Parenthood has said Missouri is using the licensing process as a weapon aimed at halting abortions.

The fate of the clinic has drawn national attention because Missouri would become the first state since 1974, the year after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, without a functioning abortion clinic if it loses its license. The battle also comes as abortion rights supporters raise concerns that conservative-led states, including Missouri, are attempting to end abortion through tough new laws and tighter regulation.

Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed legislation on May 24 to ban abortions at or beyond eight weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for medical emergencies but not for rape or incest.

The number of abortions performed in Missouri has declined every year over the past decade, but uncertainty in Missouri is sending women to neighboring states, particularly Illinois and Kansas.

Missouri health department statistics show that abortions in Missouri reached a low of 2,910 last year. Of those, an estimated 1,210 occurred at eight weeks or less of pregnancy.

The Hope Clinic in Granite City, Illinois, 10 miles (16 kilometers) from St. Louis, has seen a big increase in Missouri clients since 2017, said Alison Dreith, the clinic’s deputy director. That year, Missouri adopted a more restrictive abortion law, including giving the attorney general power to prosecute violations.

Dreith said about 55 percent of patients at Hope Clinic are from Missouri, 40 percent from Illinois and 5 percent from elsewhere around the country. The clinic attracts clients from across the U.S. in part because Illinois allows the procedure for up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, longer than most states, she said.

The Granite City clinic saw about 3,000 total patients in 2017. Missouri’s more restrictive law played a big role in the number spiking to 3,800 in 2018, Dreith said.

This year, she expects well over 4,000 patients. So far in 2019, the number of Missourians at the Hope Clinic has spiked 30 percent due to concerns about the St. Louis clinic’s license and other anti-abortion efforts, Dreith said.

“Our patients are calling us with a lot of anxiety because they’re seeing the headlines that abortion is banned,” Dreith said.

Information from the state of Kansas shows that about 3,300 of the 7,000 abortions performed there last year involved Missouri residents, meaning that more Missourians get abortions in Kansas than in their home state. Kansas has an abortion clinic in Overland Park, a Kansas City suburb just 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the state line.