TRUMP, KIM FINALLY ARE FACE TO FACE
Before leaders meet, president announces plan to leave early
SINGAPORE — President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shook hands in advance of their historic summit today, balancing the elusive promise of peace against the specter of a growing nuclear threat. Yet even before they met, Trump announced plans to leave early, raising questions about whether his aspirations for an ambitious outcome had been scaled back.
When they appeared together for the first time, Trump put a hand on Kim’s arm as the two engaged in a long handshake before walking off together and giving brief statements.
Just before the meeting began, Trump tweeted that economic adviser Larry Kudlow had suffered a heart attack and was at Walter Reed hospital near Washington, D.C.
Trump arrived first at the summit site on Singapore’s Sentosa island in advance of the meeting. Kim’s black armored limousine pulled in a short time later at the luxury resort for the world’s first meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.
The handshake is an image sure to be devoured from Washington to Pyongyang and beyond. Trump and Kim planned to meet one-on-
one for most of an hour — joined only by translators. Then aides to each were to come in for more discussions and a working lunch.
Up early in Singapore, Trump tweeted with cautious optimism: “Meetings between staffs and representatives are going well and quickly but in the end, that doesn’t matter. We will all know soon whether or not a real deal, unlike those of the past, can happen!”
In the run-up to the talks, Trump had hopefully predicted the two men might strike a nuclear deal or forge a formal end to the Korean War in the course of a single meeting or over several days. But on the eve of the summit, the White House unexpectedly announced Trump would depart Singapore by this evening, meaning his time with Kim would be fairly brief. And Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sought to keep expectations for the summit in check.
“We are hopeful this summit will have set the conditions for future successful talks,” Pompeo said, describing a far more modest goal than Trump had outlined days earlier.
The sudden change in schedule added to a dizzying few days of foreign policy activity for Trump, who shocked U.S. allies over the weekend when he used a meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized economies in Canada to alienate America’s closest friends in the West. Lashing out over trade practices, Trump lobbed insults at his G-7 host, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trump left the summit early, and as he flew to Singapore, he tweeted that he was yanking the U.S. out of the group’s traditional closing statement.
As for Singapore, the White House said Trump was leaving early because negotiations had moved “more quickly than expected,” but gave no details about any possible progress in preliminary talks. On the day before the meeting, weeks of preparation appeared to pick up in pace, with U.S. and North Korean officials meeting throughout Monday at a Singapore hotel.
The president planned to stop in Guam and Hawaii on his way back.
Trump spoke only briefly in public on Monday, forecasting a “nice” outcome. Kim spent the day mostly out of view — until he left his hotel for a late-night tour of Singapore sights, including the Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay, billed as the world’s biggest glass greenhouse.
As Trump and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sat down for a working lunch, the president sounded optimistic, telling Lee, “We’ve got a very interesting meeting in particular tomorrow, and I think things can work out very nicely.” Trump had earlier tweeted about “excitement in the air!”
It was a striking aboutface from less than a year ago, when Trump was threatening “fire and fury” against Kim, who in turn scorned the American president as a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard.” As it happens, the North Korean and the American share a tendency to act unpredictably on the world stage.
Beyond the impact on both leaders’ political fortunes, the summit could shape the fate of countless people — the citizens of impoverished North Korea, the tens of millions living in the shadow of the North’s nuclear threat, and millions more worldwide. Or, it could amount to little more than a much-photographed handshake.
Still, the sense of anticipation was great in Singapore, with people lining spotless streets holding cellphones high as Trump headed to meet Lee.
U.S. and North Korean officials huddled throughout Monday at the RitzCarlton hotel ahead of the sit-down aimed at resolving a standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.
Delegates were outlining specific goals for what the leaders should try to accomplish and multiple scenarios for resolving key issues, a senior U.S official said, adding that the meetings were also an ice breaker of sorts, allowing the teams to get better acquainted after decades of minimal contact between their nations.