BIG POW-WOW FINALLY HERE
IN their final hours of calm, President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un huddled with advisers in luxury Singapore hotels less than half a mile apart, readying for a nuclear summit that could define the fate of millions, and their own political futures.
Both sides spent yesterday finalising preparations for the unprecedented summit, which is to kick off at 11am today with a handshake between Trump and Kim, an image sure to be devoured around the world.
Trump and Kim planned to meet one-on-one, joined only by translators, for up to two hours before admitting their respective advisers, a US official said.
The official was not authorised to speak publicly about internal deliberations and insisted on anonymity.
The summit will be the first between a North Korean leader and a sitting American president. In Singapore, the island city-state playing host to the summit, the sense of anticipation was palpable, with people lining spotless streets yesterday waving cell phones as Trump headed to meet with Singapore’s prime minister.
US and North Korean officials negotiated at the Ritz Carlton yesterday ahead of the sit-down aimed at resolving a standoff over mit, aides said. He was joined in Singapore by Ambassador Sung Kim, the US envoy to the Philippines; and Ambassador Michael McKinley, a career diplomat Pompeo recently tapped to be his senior adviser.
Pompeo travelled twice to Pyongyang in recent months to lay the groundwork for Trump’s meeting, becoming the most senior member of Trump’s team to spend time with Kim face-to-face.
Illustrating the divisions within Trump’s administration about the wisdom of pursuing diplomacy with the North, Pompeo has been a driving force behind the meeting as national security adviser John Bolton has become a more behind the scenes player.
Trump has said he hopes to make a legacy-defining deal for the North to give up its nuclear weapons, though he has recently sought to minimise expectations, saying more than one meeting may be necessary.
Experts believe the North is on the brink of being able to target the entire US mainland with its nuclear-armed missiles, and while there’s deep scepticism that Kim will quickly give up those hardwon nukes, there’s also some hope that diplomacy can replace the animosity between the US and the North.