‘N.Korea nuclear threat is over’ – Trump

US president Donald Trump has declared on Twitter that there is “no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea” following his summit with Kim Jong Un.

Mr Trump’s claim comes despite few guarantees emerging from the Singapore meeting with the North Korean leader on how and when Pyongyang would disarm.

The American president tweeted: “Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office.

“There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!”

Mr Trump and Mr Kim were returning to their respective strongholds following the talks – but to very different receptions.

In Pyongyang, the North Korean autocrat woke up to state media’s enthusiastic claims of a victorious meeting with the US president. Photos of him standing beside Mr Trump on the world stage were splashed across newspapers.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, faced questions about whether he gave away too much in return for far too little when he bestowed a new legitimacy on Mr Kim’s rule and agreed, at Pyongyang’s request, to end military exercises with Seoul that the allies had long portrayed as crucial to Asian safety.

As the top US diplomat jetted to South Korea for follow-up talks yesterday, much of Asia was still trying to process the whirlwind events of the day before.

There was, at times, a surreal quality to the fivehour meeting between two men who had threatened each other with nuclear war and insulted each other’s mental and physical attributes months before.

Mr Trump praised Mr Kim’s negotiating skills and their new relationship, and expressed hope for “a bright new future” for Mr Kim’s impoverished nation.

But there are worries, especially in Tokyo and Seoul, about Mr Trump agreeing to halt US military exercises with South Korea, which the North has long claimed were preparations for an invasion.