Trump and Kim to meet on June 12 in Singapore

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12, Trump announced, hours after suggesting that the release of three Americans held in the North heralded a potential breakthrough toward denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.

“We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!” the US president said in a tweet yesterday.

With the final details in place, Trump and Kim will meet in the first North Korea-US summit talks since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Kim has suspended nuclear and missile tests and put his nuclear programme up for negotiation, but questions remain about how serious his offer is and what disarmament steps he would willing to take.

Vice-president Mike Pence said yesterday on NBC News, “In this moment the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith.”

Singapore had emerged as the likely host of the summit after Trump yielded to the concerns of his aides and backed off his desire to hold the meeting at the inter-Korean demilitarised zone.

Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental US.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kim’s willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating US moves to tighten sanctions – branded “maximum pressure” by the president. — AP