TRUMP, KIM ARRIVE IN S’PORE
Meeting to focus on ending Pyongyang’s nuclear programme
NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump arrived in Singapore yesterday for an unprecedented summit, with Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal at the top of the agenda and the US president calling it a “onetime shot” at peace.
Bringing the Korean War to a formal end 65 years after hostilities ceased will also be on the table at the first-ever meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting president of its “imperialist enemy”.
It is an extraordinary turnaround from the tensions of last year, when Jong-un accelerated his weapons programmes and the two men traded personal insults and threats of war.
But critics charge that the meeting risks being largely a triumph of style over substance.
Jong-un arrived in Singapore on board an Air China 747.
Trump landed in the evening after a long flight from Canada and the G7 meeting there, telling Singaporean officials who welcomed him that he was feeling “very good” about the summit.
Authorities imposed tight security on the summit venue and the luxury hotels where the leaders were to stay, including installing extra pot plants outside Jong-un’s accommodation to obstruct reporters’ views.
Washington is demanding the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of the North, while Pyongyang has only made public pledges of its commitment to the denuclearisation of the peninsula — a term open to wide interpretation — while seeking security guarantees.
Former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage expected little progress on the key issue of defining denuclearisation.
“The success will be in the shutter clicks of the cameras. They both get what they want.”
Trump insisted last week that the summit would “not be just a photo op”, saying it would help forge a “good relationship” that would lead to a “process” towards the “ultimate making of a deal”.
But as he embarked for Singapore, he changed his tune, calling it a “one-time shot” and adding he will know “within the first minute” whether an agreement will be possible.
“If I think it won’t happen, I’m not going to waste my time.”
He has dangled the prospect of Jong-un visiting Washington if the meeting goes well.
But Trump baffled observers when he said he did not think he had to prepare “very much” for the summit.
“It’s about attitude,” Trump said. “So this isn’t a question of preparation.”