Kim, Trump in Singapore for historic summit
SINGAPORE (AFP/AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and United States President Donald Trump are set for an unprecedented summit in Singapore in an attempt to address the last festering legacy of the Cold War, with the US President calling it a “one time
shot” at peace.
Kim arrived Sunday in Singapore ahead of one of the most unusual and highly anticipated summits in recent world history, a sit-down Tuesday with Trump meant to settle a standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear bomb arsenal.
The jet carrying Kim landed at the airport Sunday afternoon amid huge security precautions on this city-state island. Singapore quickly released a picture of Kim and the foreign minister shaking hands. A large limousine with a North Korean flag could then be seen surrounded by other black vehicles with tinted window as it sped through the city’s streets to the St. Regis Hotel, where China’s President Xi Jinping once stayed.
The North Korean leader was due to meet Singaporean President Lee Hsien Loong later on Sunday, the city-state’s foreign ministry said, while Trump was flying from Canada on board Air Force One after leaving the G7 summit early.
Authorities imposed tight security around the summit venue and related luxury hotels – including installing extra pot plants outside one contender for Kim’s accommodation to obstruct reporters’ views.
“If the summit becomes a success, the Singaporean efforts will go down in history,” Kim said.
Trump arrives 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 around the Singapore summit venue and the luxury hotels where the leaders were to stay – including installing extra pot plants outside Kim’s accommodation to obstruct reporters’ views.
Diplomacy ‘extravaganza’ Kim’s summit with Trump has captured intense global attention after a turn to diplomacy in recent months replaced, for the time being, serious fears of war last year amid North Korean nuclear and missile tests. The North, many experts believe, stands on the brink of being able to target the entire US mainland with its nuclear-armed missiles, and while there’s deep skepticism that Kim will quickly give up those hard-won nukes, there’s also some hope that diplomacy can replace the animosity between the US and the North.
The North Korean autocrat’s every move will be followed by 3,000 journalists up until he shakes hands with Trump. Kim has only publicly left his country three times since taking power after his despot father’s death in late 2011 — twice traveling to China and once across his shared border with the South to the southern part of the Demilitarized Zone in recent summits with the leaders of China and South Korea respectively.
Tuesday’s Singapore meeting is the climax of the astonishing flurry of diplomacy on and around the Korean peninsula this year, but critics charge that it risks being largely a triumph of style over substance.
Washington is demanding the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID) of the North, while Pyongyang has so far only made public pledges of its commitment to the denuclearization of the peninsula – a term open to wide interpretation – while seeking security guarantees.
Skepticism alive
Former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage expected little progress on the key issue of defining denuclearization.
“The success will be in the shutter clicks of the cameras,” he said. “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.
Despite the high stakes of a meeting meant to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons, the talks have been portrayed by Trump in recent days more as a getto-know-you session. He has also raised the possibility of further summits and an agreement ending the Korea War by replacing the armistice signed in 1953 with a peace treaty. China and South Korea would have to sign off on any legal treaty.