Kim Jong-un arrives in Singapore for summit with Donald Trump
The North Korean leader, Kim Jongun, has arrived in Singapore ahead of one of the most unusual and highly anticipated summits in recent world history, a meeting on Tuesday with the US president, Donald Trump, meant to settle a standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.
The jet carrying Kim landed at the airport on Sunday afternoon local time amid huge security precautions. Singapore released a picture of Kim and the foreign minister shaking hands. A large limousine with a North Korean flag could be seen surrounded by other black vehicles with tinted windows as it sped through the city to the St Regis hotel, where China’s president, Xi Jinping, once stayed.
The US delegation was en route from the G7 meeting in Canada, with the US president set to meet Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, on Monday.
Trump, who said on Saturday he would know within a minute of meeting Kim if the summit was going to work, is scheduled to arrive at Singapore’s Paya Lebar airbase at 8.35pm local time on Sunday. He would then go to the Shangri-La hotel, where he will be staying, according to the White House.
Officials onboard Air Force One include the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, the national security adviser, John Bolton, the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, and the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders.
Kim is staying at the Regis hotel during the summit, which is being held at the Capella hotel on the small island of Sentosa.
It was not clear if he had shipped over the bulletproof and fireproof limousine that became a point of interest when Kim was shown being driven across the border between the Koreas during his first summit with the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, in April, with a dozen bodyguards encircling the car.
The Straits Times reported earlier this month that the Singapore government said four black BMW sedans with armoured bodies were exempt from certain traffic rules until 30 June. The newspaper said the vehicles were not from a local dealer, which suggested the cars were brought in specifically for the summit and may be used by Kim. The North Korean leader will bring his own cohort of bodyguards.
Key discussion points at the summit are North Korea’s nuclear weapons and peace on the Korean peninsula. North Korea spent decades developing nuclear weapons, culminating in the test of a thermonuclear device in 2017. It also successfully tested missiles that could reach the US mainland.
The tests came amid a campaign of “maximum pressure”, led by the US that tightened economic sanctions against North Korea and raised the possibility of military action.
In a New Year’s address, Kim said his country had completed development of its nuclear programme and would focus on economic development, suggesting a meeting with South Korea.
After a flurry of contacts between the two Koreas, South Korean officials suggested to Trump in March that Kim would be willing to meet face-to-face.
The summit comes after weeks of sometimes-contentious discussions and was briefly cancelled amid North Korean outrage over messaging from some US advisers.