US President Donald Trump addresses the media in Singapore and started his speech with, “We are ready to write a new chapter in US-North Korea history.” “Trump calls Kim talks “honest, direct and productive.” “We got to know each other well in a very confined period of time under very strong, strong circumstances.”
Trump-Kim Summit Latest Updates: US President Donald Trump said, “We are probably going to need another summit.” He added that he will visit Pyongyang “at a certain time.” Trump said that he will invite Chairman Kim to the White House “at an appropriate time,” and that Kim has accepted the invite. Trump addresses the media in Singapore and started his speech with, “We are ready to write a new chapter in US-North Korea history.” Trump calls Kim talks “honest, direct and productive.” “We got to know each other well in a very confined period of time under very strong, strong circumstances,” says US president. Trump says there is now a hope that the Korean War can be brought to a formal end. “It will soon end. The past does not have to define the future.” “Chairman Kim has before him an opportunity like no other to be remembered as the leader who ushered in a glorious new era of prosperity for his people,” says Trump. Reports have claimed that North Korea in the “comprehensive document” signed by Kim and Trump, has committed to complete the process of denuclearisation in the Korean Peninsula. The document still has not been made public.
Trump and Kim signed a joint agreement, which the US president dubbed as an “important document.” However, details related to the document are still sketchy. “We’re signing a very important document, a pretty comprehensive document,” Trump said addressing a roomful of reporters who were waiting. He said he would discuss it “at great length” at the news conference at 4 pm, and indicated it would be made available publicly. Kim said that he wanted to express gratitude to Trump for ensuring that this meeting happened. “We had historic meeting and decided to leave the past behind and we are about to sign the historic document. World will see the change,” Kim said. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un addressed a limited number of journalists after a morning of meetings with each other. Trump said, “A lot of goodwill went into this.” Kim said, “It’s time to leave past behind and the world will see major change.” Reporters asking questions of Trump and whether the statement is a deal is to secure denuclearization: “We’re starting that process quickly, very very quickly,” Trump says. Then says reporters need to wait “a little while” for further details. Trump declined to specify what exactly the leaders would be signing. Trump said after emerging from hours of talks with Kim on Tuesday in Singapore that “we’re going right now for a signing.” Trump and Kim came together for a momentous summit Tuesday that could chart a course for historic peace or raise the specter of a growing nuclear threat. Kim called the sit-down was a “good prelude for peace” as Trump pledged that “working together we will get it taken care of.” In a meeting that seemed unthinkable just months ago, Trump and Kim met with staged ceremony at a Singapore island resort. Before the watching world, they strode toward each other and clasped hands warmly before a row of alternating U.S. and North Korean flags. The duo then moved into a roughly 40-minute one-on-one meeting, joined only by their interpreters, before including their advisers for additional talks. Trump and Kim are expected to have a working lunch at around 11.30 am (Singapore time) (9 am IST). Here is the expected summit schedule for the rest of today (all times Singapore — 2 and a half hours ahead of India). 11.30 am: Trump and Kim to have a working lunch 4 pm: Trump will hold press conference 6.30 pm: Trump departs from Capella en route to the airport 7 pm: Trump departs Singapore en route to Washington via Guam After a 41-minute one-on-one session, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the two leaders are currently discussing bilateral ties, reports have said. Trump is sounding optimistic about his ability to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program after a lengthy one-on-one meeting with Kim. Trump said Tuesday at the beginning of expanded discussions with aides from both countries that “We will solve a big problem” and “a big dilemma.” He talked about the pair achieving “tremendous success together” and predicts that “it will be successful. It will be done.” It was hard to hear the president and Kim over the constant clicking of camera shutters, and it remains unclear precisely what he was referring to. After the historical handshake, Trump and Kim are onto their 45-minute one-on-one session at the Capella Hotel at Sentosa Island. Trump and leader Kim shared a historic handshake as they meet for the first time. The two clasped hands for a long while Tuesday as they posed for photos in front of a row of U.S. and North Korean flags. Trump then directed Kim to walk down a hallway, where they briefly spoke. It’s the first ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and North Korean leader. Trump and Kim arrived not long ago on Singapore’s Sentosa Island, the site of their unprecedented summit. It’s aimed at settling a standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal. According to the latest reports, both the leaders have reached Sentosa Island. Kim is meeting Trump at the Sentosa Island in another half an hour. Local media earlier reported that Trump and Kim will meet at Capella Hotel at 9 am today. The two leaders are expected to leave their hotels at 8 am (IST 5.30 am) separately, Channel News Asia reports. According to latest reports, Trump has left the Shangri-La Hotel. [caption id=“attachment_4506463” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]![Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un met for the first time in Singapore’s Sentosa Island on Tuesday.]()
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un met for the first time in Singapore’s Sentosa Island on Tuesday.[/caption] They came with scores of aides, bodyguards and diplomats in tow: Donald Trump from Washington, Kim Jong Un from Pyongyang. But for the better part of an hour, the two men will square off one on one, alone but for a pair of interpreters, raising concerns about the risk of holding such a monumental meeting with barely anyone to bear witness. After greeting each other for the first time Tuesday in front of reporters, the American president and the North Korean leader will seclude themselves on Singapore’s Sentosa Island for roughly 45 minutes while their entourages wait nearby. The intimate huddle will precede a larger meeting and a working lunch attended by Trump’s chief of staff, national security adviser and secretary of state, the White House said, along with some of their North Korean counterparts. For better part of an hour, Trump and Kim will square off one on one, alone but for a pair of translators. That’s raising concerns about the risk of holding such a monumental meeting with barely anyone to bear witness. Trump and Kim will meet on Singapore’s Sentosa Island for roughly 45 minutes while their entourages wait nearby. The huddle will come before a larger meeting and a working lunch attended by top advisers to the president and their North Korean counterparts. After a sudden and welcome turn to diplomacy following last year’s threats, insults and fears of war—remember “fire and fury” and “dotard”?—Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are ready to shake hands, sit down face-to-face and … do what exactly? Some observers insist that it’s the beginning of the complete denuclearisation of North Korea. No, no, say others, you need to manage your expectations. This is just an elaborate get-to-know-you session, albeit between the two most famous leaders in the world, and nuclear armed at that. Actually, says another group, there will indeed be disarmament, a peace treaty ending the Korean War and North Korea’s emergence as a contributing member of the international community: But just not right now. Whatever the results, it will be one of the more unusual summits in recent history as a flamboyant, often erratic US president gets a close-up look at a hereditary socialist despot who sits on a nuclear weapons programme. Here’s a look at how Tuesday’s first-ever meeting between the leaders of North Korea and the United States might turn out: What does success look like? Success in Singapore would see Kim making a bold decision to exchange his nukes for economic support and security assurances, according to Ryan Haas, an Asia expert at the John L Thornton China Center. Both leaders would offer “clear, specific, unequivocal statements” outlining a dismantlement of North Korean weapons, an inventory and removal of all nuclear fuel and an opening up to UN nuclear inspectors. Trump has faced intense pressure to win something similar to this. A group of Opposition Democratic lawmakers in the United States said in a statement that if Trump, a Republican, wants approval for a deal that allows an easing of sanctions on North Korea, he needs to get the permanent dismantlement and removal of “every single one of North Korea’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons,” end all military nuclear fuel production and missile and nuclear tests, and persuade Pyongyang to “commit to robust compliance inspections including a verification regime for North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.” This is a very high bar and probably unrealistic after one meeting. Laboriously negotiated past nuclear deals, considered breakthroughs at the time, broke down on North Korea’s extreme sensitivity to allowing in outsiders to look at whether they’re dismantling their nuclear facilities, many of which are thought to be hidden. “While a summit between Trump and Kim would be historic, it is unlikely to be decisive. This is not the fault of either Trump or Kim, but rather a reflection that intractable, decades-long strategic challenges rarely-if ever-get resolved in single encounters,” Haas writes. Should we lower our expectations? Probably. In fact, Trump has been doing quite a bit of this lately. [caption id=“attachment_4504929” align=“alignright” width=“380”]
 Kim Jong-un arrived in Singapore on Sunday. AP[/caption] What was initially portrayed by the White House as a summit meant to completely rid the North of its nuclear weapons is now being cast as a chance to “start a dialogue” and for Trump the dealmaker to look into the eyes and take the measure of his nuclear-armed antagonist. Ferial Saeed, a former State Department official, writes that the summit will be a “getting to know you meeting, ‘plus.’ That means, lower your expectations, and that the president is likely to lean toward keeping his own counsel and eschew a script. The ‘plus’ refers to discussions on ending the Korean War.” China, both Koreas and the United States would have to sign off on any legally binding treaty, so it is unlikely Kim and Trump will do more than express an intention to end the war. Trump, after meeting recently with a North Korean envoy at the White House, said the summit will likely be part of “a process.” “I told them today, take your time. We can go fast, we can go slowly,” Trump said. “That is an extraordinary offer of flexibility, considering (North Korea) poses a direct security threat to the United States,” according to Saeed. In part, these lowered expectations are a reflection of the extreme skepticism among many that the North can be persuaded to give up a nuclear programme it has stubbornly built over the decades, often in secrecy and despite intense sanctions, international condemnation and widespread suffering among its people. “There is no chance to make North Korean leaders … surrender their nuclear weapons,” Andrei Lankov, a Korea expert at Seoul’s Kookmin University, wrote recently on a Washington-based Asia newsletter. “They see denuclearisation as a collective suicide (and they are probably right). However, now there are good chances to push North Korean nuclear/missile programme back, for many years perhaps, and keep it that way for some time.” What if the summit fails? If things fall apart, it could be because “Trump presents Kim with a hard-and-fast binary choice: Relinquish nuclear weapons and live in peace and prosperity, or cling to them and risk the impoverishment of your people and the safety of your regime,” Haas said. But a failure on Tuesday doesn’t necessarily mean a return to the animosity of 2017. That’s in part because of South Korea’s diplomatic outreach to the North, which was highlighted by two summits this spring between the rivals’ leaders. If Trump and Kim fail in Singapore “the result may be to enhance North Korean dependency on Seoul and Beijing as safety valves against the prospect of renewal of U.S.-(North Korea) confrontation,” according to Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. “This circumstance in and of itself provides a new buffer against the prospect of military escalation in Korea that was not present at the end of 2017.”
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