Korean peace hopes for Singapore summit

DONALD TRUMP could secure a formal end to the 68-year Korean War during his summit with Kim Jong-un, handing the US president a symbolic win from the historic meeting.

Mr Trump has talked up his chances of securing peace amid positive signals from Kim, the North Korean leader, and Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president.

The war broke out in June 1950 but while fighting ceased three years later with an armistice, a peace treaty was never signed – meaning the two sides are still technically at war.

Mr Trump said he has discussed a formal ending of the war with Kim Yongchol, a senior North Korean official who visited the White House last week.

The US president said: “We talked about ending the war... there is a possibility of something like that.

“That’s more of a signing of a document... historically, it’s very important, but we’ll see”.

It comes after US officials played down the chance of a dramatic breakthrough on denuclearisation at the summit, which Mr Trump has called a “‘getting to know you’ meeting plus”.

The White House yesterday announced Mr Trump would cut short his time at the G7 summit to fly, earlier then expected, to Singapore where he will meet Mr Kim on Tuesday.

Dennis Rodman, the former basketball star who met Mr Kim a number of times, confirmed he will be in Singapore during the summit. However, while Mr Trump yesterday praised Mr Rodman’s sports skills he said he had not been asked to attend the summit.