Trump and Kim’s one-on-one meeting is ‘unacceptable threat to U.S. security’
One US official said the two sides were working to craft a joint US-North Korea “statement of understanding” that could be released after the talks.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump has dangled the carrot of a normalisation of diplomatic ties between the former foes and even a White House visit for Kim, which would confirm his arrival on the world stage.
“I think our whole relationship with North Korea and the Korean Peninsula is going to be a very much different situation than it has in the past”, Trump said during the summit.
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Kim Yong Chol’s rise has baffled many North Korea watchers because he is the ruling Workers’ Party official in charge of South Korea ties, not global or USA relations.
Experts are sceptical. At best, the meeting will likely provide a road map for future talks, each round of which will require hard and complex negotiations.
That decision has raised concerns about the risk of holding such a monumental meeting with barely anyone to bear witness.
Enigmatic North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ruled the secretive authoritarian state and self-proclaimed nuclear power since December 2011. Trump labelled the North Korean leader “Little Rocket Man” in a speech to the UN General Assembly.
Many experts on North Korea, one of the most insular and unpredictable countries in the world, remain sceptical Kim will ever completely abandon nuclear weapons. US and North Korean officials huddled throughout Monday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, outlining specific goals for what the leaders should try to accomplish and multiple scenarios for resolving key issues, a senior U.S official said, adding that the meetings were also an ice breaker of sorts, allowing the teams to get better acquainted after decades of minimal contact between their nations.
Around this time past year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was getting ready to test his country’s first intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the US mainland. The summit with Trump will be another way to win over legitimizing political capital – especially if the summit results in the normalization of U.S. In question is Pyongyang’s precise commitment to nuclear disarmament, and the security guarantees the U.S. is willing to offer in return.
The PBS NewsHour’s Nick Schifrin tells managing editor and anchor Judy Woodruff the latest from Singapore.
Half an hour later, Kim came down to the lobby, dressed in his customary black Mao suit and accompanied by his sister Kim Yo-jong and his de facto chief of staff Kim Chang-son.
Various administration Twitter feeds posted footage of Trump departing his hotel and heading to the summit with Kim on Singapore’s Sentosa Island.
The parties briefly salvaged the agreement by providing North Korea with more food and energy aid as well as un-freezing North Korean assets held in Banco Delta Asia.
Later in the day, advisers joined the talks for a larger bilateral session and a working lunch.
Another question is whether Trump will take up the issue of human rights – with North Korea accused of a host of state-sanctioned rights abuses including extrajudicial killing, torture and kidnapping.
Kim and Trump started their first summit with a historic handshake that lasted for a few seconds before a row of national flags of the two countries.
Before the summit meeting, Trump called the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, to brief them on developments.
President Donald Trump has arrived on Singapore’s Sentosa Island for his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. To believe Kim would agree to relinquish his nuclear arsenal-the greatest deterrent for an global campaign to depose his regime-on words alone, or consent to immediately shipping his program out of the country as National Security Advisor John Bolton suggested, were always ludicrous propositions.
A U.S. official confirmed to CNN Trump’s departure was moved up by more than 12 hours because Kim set his own departure for shortly after the summit, as first reported by Bloomberg.
Kim and Trump are scheduled to meet alone, with their interpreters, after greeting each other at the resort.