Historic Meeting Between US and North Korean Leaders Held: Trump-Kim Summit

A historic meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took place at 9 a.m. on Tuesday local time at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island in Singapore. This is the first summit between the two countries’ leaders since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

The leaders of the two countries shook hands at the beginning of the meeting and, before beginning their negotiations, which were held behind closed doors with only interpreters present, briefly stood before cameras from various international media outlets and spoke with journalists.

President Trump expressed hope that today’s meeting would be fruitful and predicted that he would establish an “extraordinary” relationship with Kim Jong-un. The North Korean leader also said he hopes they can resolve all the misunderstandings that previously existed between the two countries.

After the private meeting between the two leaders, which lasted less than an hour with only two interpreters present, President Trump called the meeting “very, very good” and said the relationship would be excellent.

Following the private meeting between President Trump and the North Korean leader, delegations from both countries continued these unprecedented talks. After this meeting, a working lunch was held.

No details of these negotiations have been released yet. However, it is expected that President Trump will participate in a press conference hours later, before leaving Singapore for Washington, and will provide media with information about today’s negotiations.

Before this meeting, President Trump told journalists that North Korea should move toward complete, irreversible, and verifiable nuclear disarmament, and said this meeting should result in the formation of a “framework of concrete measures that need to be pursued.”

He had previously emphasized that the purpose of this meeting is to stop North Korea’s missile and nuclear threats, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said earlier on Monday that our demand is the complete denuclearization of North Korea and we are willing to provide security guarantees in return.

This historic meeting took place about a year after increased missile and nuclear tests by North Korea caused tensions between Washington and Pyongyang to escalate so dramatically that global concerns about a military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula increased significantly.

The verbal war between North Korea’s leader and the United States escalated to the point where both sides, in addition to personal attacks, threatened military action; to the extent that President Trump warned in August 2017 that if North Korea continued its threats, it would face American “fire and fury.”

Following this American threat, North Korea announced it was finalizing plans to fire four ballistic missiles at Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean. This was met with a firm response from President Trump, who said if Pyongyang acted foolishly, the military option was ready.

Nevertheless, the North Korean leader unexpectedly invited the U.S. president for a direct meeting in March, and President Trump accepted. Although the first summit between the two countries’ leaders was initially canceled, it was ultimately announced that it would be held on the scheduled date.

Since the end of the Korean War and the signing of the ceasefire agreement in July 1953, the Korean Peninsula has remained in a state of “neither war nor peace,” and a permanent peace agreement has not yet been achieved. Currently, approximately 28,500 U.S. military personnel are stationed in South Korea.

Source: Voice of America