Trump- Kim meet, commit to ‘ complete denuclearisation’
Singapore, June 12: Clasping hands and forecasting future peace, President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un committed Tuesday to “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula during the first meeting in history between a sitting US President and a North Korean leader.
Meeting with staged ceremony on a Singapore island, Mr Trump and Mr Kim expressed optimism throughout roughly five hours of talks, with Mr Trump thanking Mr Kim afterward “for taking the first bold step toward a bright new future for his people.” Mr Kim, for his part, said the leaders had “decided to leave the past behind” and promised: “The world will see a major change.”
Yet as Mr Trump toasted the summit’s results, he faced mounting questions about whether he got too little and gave away too much — including an agreement to halt US military exercises with treaty ally South Korea.
Light on specifics, the agreement largely amounted to continued discussions, as it echoed previous public statements and past commitments. It did not, for instance, inc- lude a pact to take steps toward ending the technical state of warfare between the two nations.
Singapore, June 12: As the world waited, Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un sat by themselves for the better part of an hour, alone but for a pair of interpreters who became the sole witnesses to history’s first face- to- face conversation between an American president and a North Korean leader.
The scores of aides, bodyguards and diplomats who accompanied the leaders from Washington and Pyongyang waited elsewhere for the roughly 45- minute one- on- one meeting. To some national security veterans, it raised concerns about the risk of holding such a monumental meeting solo.