In eye of storm, scant news of Trump summit in North Korea

Traditionally, in meetings between world leaders, officials from both sides reach an agreement before the leaders sit down together.

The summit – the first between a sitting USA president and any North Korean Leader – will mark a turnaround of relations between Trump and Kim after a long-running exchange of furious threats and insults.

“Anytime that a president has a successful foreign-policy event, summit or outcome, it helps him in the polls for one reason: He or she is doing their job well, and the best politics is doing your job well”, Kaufman told the Herald.

The talks would also involve “building a permanent and durable peacekeeping mechanism on the Korean peninsula and “the issue of realising the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, the agency said”.

North Korea’s Kim landed Singapore’s Changi Airport earlier on Sunday, in his longest trip overseas as head of state.

Even if North Korea is completely disingenuous and has no intention of getting rid of its nuclear arms, Kim could likely get a deal with Trump to slowly remove the weapons and just wait out the clock until Trump leaves office. “We have watched the struggles, and the sacrifices and the progress of the people”, he said. “It’s never going to be there again”, Trump said on Saturday.

Later, a meeting including officials could last another hour.

Trump’s North Korean counterpart had also attended a meeting with PM Lee at the Istana yesterday for a half-hour session.

But Trump – for whom a major accomplishment would bolster his position ahead of midterm elections in November – baffled observers when he said he did not think he had to prepare “very much” for the summit.

But of the president’s six tweets since landing in Singapore, five were rants about trade and only one – “Great to be in Singapore, excitement in the air” – referenced the upcoming summit.

China and South Korea would have to sign off on any legal treaty.

The foreign minister of Singapore tweeted out a picture of the cake presented to Trump at the luncheon today in Singapore.

The Trump- Kim meeting will be a first for a sitting USA president and North Korean leader, and the picture would have seemed unthinkable just a year ago.

Trump’s efforts to make peace with a country that is still technically at war with the United States received backing from his fellow G7 members in a joint statement issued after the USA president’s departure. Mr. Trump is offering security assurances and economic development in return for the complete dismantling of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.

But he has since lowered expectations, backing away from an original demand for North Korea’s swift denuclearisation.

But many, if not all analysts, say that this is highly unlikely, given how hard it has been for Kim to build his program and that the weapons are seen as the only protection he has.

In this April 27 photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in embrace each other after signing on a joint statement at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea.

Kim held a meeting with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong ahead of the planned summit.

First the nuts and bolts: How do you protect what many North Koreans consider their single most precious resource, the third member of the Kim family to rule and a direct descendant of North Korea’s worshipped founder Kim Il Sung?