‘A very special moment for World Peace!’

DONALD Trump will meet Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.

The United States president yesterday announced the historic meeting between himself and the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Trump did so hours after suggesting that the release of three Americans held in the DPRK heralded a potential breakthrough toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

“We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!” Trump said in a tweet.

With the final details in place, Trump and Kim will meet in the first DPRK-US summit talks since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War. Kim has suspended nuclear and missile tests and put his nuclear program up for negotiation.

South Korea’s government said it had high hopes for the summit. “We welcome the North Korea-US summit to be held in Singapore on June 12. We hope the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as well as permanent peace on the peninsula will successfully come about through this summit.”

Earlier yesterday, with the American former detainees by his side on a dark air base tarmac, Trump said during a made-for-TV ceremony that it was a “great honor” to welcome the trio back to the US, but he added: “The true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.”

US Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, other top officials and first lady Melania joined the president in the celebration in the wee hours at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.

The former detainees — Kim Dong-chul, Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim — were released on Wednesday amid the warming of relations between long-time adversaries.

The released Americans appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft. When asked by reporters how it felt to be home, one of the men answered through a translator, “It’s like a dream; we are very, very happy.”

They later gave the president a round of applause.

Trump thanked Kim Jong Un for releasing the Americans, and said he believes Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearization at the summit.

“I really think he wants to do something,” the US president said.

Singapore had emerged as the likely host of the summit after Trump yielded to the concerns of his aides and backed off his desire to hold the meeting at the inter-Korean demilitarized zone.

Located at the southern tip of Malaysia, Singapore is a regional hub in Southeast Asia whose free enterprise philosophy welcomes trading partners from everywhere. It has close diplomatic and defense ties with the US and yet is also familiar ground for the DPRK, with which it established diplomatic relations in 1975.

Shortly before 3am yesterday, Trump and his wife boarded the medical plane on which the detainees had traveled and spent several minutes meeting them privately.

The group then emerged at top of the airplane stairway, where the men held up their arms in an exuberant display.

US service members on the tarmac burst into applause and cheers.

“This is a special night for these three really great people,” Trump told reporters. On America’s relationship with the DPRK, Trump declared, “We’re starting off on a new footing.”

The White House choreographed the arrival event, suspending a giant American flag between two fire trucks on the tarmac and inviting the media to witness the return. The image-conscious president told reporters: “I think you probably broke the all-timein-history television rating for 3 o’clock in the morning.”

The trio were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where they were to be evaluated and receive medical treatment before being reunited with their families.

Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the “official suggestion” of the US president, said the DPRK’s official news agency KCNA.

The DPRK had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the US with severe brain damage.