Trump meets Kim: The 12-second handshake which made history
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with US president Donald Trump during their historic summit in Singapore yesterday, carrying hopes of ending decades of hostility and the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear programme.
Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un have concluded an extraordinary nuclear summit with the US president pledging unspecified “security guarantees” to the North and Mr Kim recommitting to the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.
Meeting with staged ceremony on a Singapore island, the pair came together for a summit that seemed unthinkable months ago, clasping hands in front of a row of alternating US and North Korean flags, holding a one-on-one meeting, additional talks with advisers and a working lunch.
Both leaders expressed optimism throughout roughly five hours of talks and, speaking at a news conference after the meeting, Mr Trump thanked Mr Kim for “taking the first bold step toward a bright new future for his people”.
The president said “real change is indeed possible” and he is prepared “to start a new history” and “write a new chapter” between the two nations, adding: “The past does not have to define the future.”
Mr Trump added during a free-flowing news conference that Mr Kim has “an opportunity like no other” to bring his country back into the community of nations if he agrees to give up his nuclear programme.
The president announced he will freeze US military “war games” with ally South Korea while negotiations between the two countries continue. He cast the decision as a cost-saving measure, but Pyongyang has long objected to the drills as a security threat.
Mr Trump acknowledged that the timetable for denuclearisation is long, but said: “Once you start the process it means it’s pretty much over.”
The president acknowledged that US intelligence on the North Korean nuclear stockpile is limited, “probably less there than any other country”, but added: “We have enough intelligence to know that what they have is very substantial.”
Mr Trump sidestepped his public praise for an autocrat whose people have been oppressed for decades. He added that Otto Warmbier, an American once detained in North Korea, “did not die in vain” because his death brought about the nuclear talks. Mr Trump said Mr Kim accepted his invitation to visit the White House at the “appropriate” time.
Light on specifics, the document signed by the leaders largely amounted to an agreement to continue discussions as it echoed previous public statements and past commitments.
It did not include an agreement to take steps towards ending the technical state of warfare between the US and North Korea.
The pair promised in the document to “build a lasting and stable peace regime” on the Korean peninsula and to repatriate the remains of prisoners of war and those missing in action during the Korean War.
Language on North Korea’s bombs was similar to what the leaders of North and South Korea came up with at their own summit in April.
At the time, the Koreans faced criticism for essentially kicking the issue of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal down the road to the Singapore summit.
Mr Trump and Mr Kim even directly referenced the socalled Panmunjom Declaration, which contained a weak commitment to denuclearisation and no specifics on how to achieve it.
Several reporters asked whether Mr Trump had raised the issue of human rights with Mr Kim, who runs a totali- tarian regime with extreme censorship and forced-labour camps.
The US president said he had, and did not retract his description of Mr Kim as “talented”.
“Well, he is very talented,” Mr Trump said. “Anybody that takes over a situation like he did at 26 years of age and is able to run it and run it tough. I don’t say he was nice.”
In a post-summit interview with ABC News, the president said he was confident that the agreement meant full denuclearisation.
“Yeah, he’s de-nuking, I mean he’s de-nuking the whole place. It’s going to start very quickly. I think he’s going to start now,” he said.
“I think he trusts me and I trust him,” Mr Trump added.
A curious new friendship is forged from fire and fury as Trump and Kim rip up the rulebook Martyn Mclaughlin
It began with an intimate tête-à-tête, followed by beef short rib confit and a hearty side portion of alpha male posturing.
If the historic summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un brought little in the way of detail as to how the potentially apocalyptic quarrel between the US and North Korea will be defused, a watching world had to make do with a slew of symbolism which, at the very least, suggested nuclear war is not imminent.
The fraught history between the two nations meant it was always going to be a remarkable gathering. Neither leader disappointed.
From Mr Trump veering off message to announce apparent concessions that were not detailed in a landmark joint agreement, to the sight of Mr Kim gawping at the interior of his counterpart’s armourplated limousine, this was no ordinary diplomatic flashpoint. Then again, neither man has exhibited much in the way of respect for what once passed as diplomatic convention – not least when they took to social media to trade a flurry of threats and insults that cheered no-one other than bomb shelter manufacturers.
What astonishes about their unprecedented, almost inconceivable rapprochement is just not the fact it took place at all, but how it manifested itself.
Whatever back channel talks preceded it, the summit felt like two warring teenagers realising they had more in common than that which divided them.
If the start of the meeting seemed beholden to choreography, with Mr Trump and Mr Kim emerging on cue from opposite porticos of the Capella Singapore to shake hands, what followed was not so regimented or predictable.
After posing for s, the two men met privately where they spoke for just under 40 minutes, before being joined by a small delegation of advisers for a working lunch.
The menu was not immediately tailored to the culinary preferences of either leader; Mr Trump enjoys well-done steaks served with tomato ketchup, while Mr Kim is said to be an avid lover of French cheese and wine.
What was on offer, instead, smacked of unification: the starters included green mango kerabu with honey lime dressing and fresh octopus, while the mains options featured beef short rib confit served with potato dauphinois and steamed broccoli and a red wine sauce.
The dessert list, presumably to Mr Trump’s delight, found room for Haagen-dazs vanilla ice cream.
With that, an intrigued global audience was enlightened as to what sounded like a most agreeable lunch.
Mr Trump signalled that things had gone “better than anybody could have expected” and that “something” would be signed soon.
That something turned out be a document – the first concrete development in what had been a substance-free day until then.
As the two men went for a walk, Mr Trump cracked a joke to cameramen. “Getting a good picture everybody?” he asked, adding: “So we look nice and handsome and thin, and perfect?” Mr Trump smiled. Mr Kim wore something resembling a frown.
There was, however, a shared moment of levity minutes later when Mr Trump showed Mr Kim his presidential limousine, a vehicle known as ‘The Beast’. As a Secret Service agent opened the passenger door. Mr Kim could be seen smiling and peering inside as he and Mr Trump stood chatting.
The two looked most content when exchanging idle talk, but there were a few formalities still to attend to.
The contents of the document – a joint agreement detailing four points – surfaced ahead of Mr Trump’s news conference before he departed for home.
It too was thin on detail, with the text stating that the US promised “security guarantees” to Pyongyang, with Mr Kim recommitting to the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.
However, the news conference itself brought a degree of elaboration, even if elements of it took some watching diplomats by surprise.
In what has been viewed as a significant concession to North Korea, a clearly ebullient Mr Trump said he would bring US military exercises in South Korea to an end, a pledge which was not recorded anywhere in the joint agreement.
If that means an end to the war games which so enraged Pyongyang, it is not easy to predict what will follow. Only the two men who forged an unlikely friendship out of fire and fury know for sure.