Trump says historic summit with N. Korea set for June 12 in Singapore
3 detainees arrive home • President says Kim wants to ‘join real world’
JOINT BASE ANDREWS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a historic summit on June 12 in Singapore where the US leader will try to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.
It will be the first ever summit between the leaders of the two countries. The two men exchanged fiery rhetoric last year over North Korea’s attempts to build a nuclear weapon that could reach the United States but tensions have since calmed considerably.
“The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!” Trump said on Twitter.
Trump’s announcement came just hours after three Americans who had been held prisoner in North Korea arrived at a US military base outside Washington, having been released by Kim.
Trump welcomed the prisoners back home, thanking Kim for their release and sounding upbeat about the summit.
The prisoners, freed after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Pyongyang for a second meeting with Kim in less than six weeks, landed at around 2:40 a.m. at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.
Trump and his wife, Melania, boarded the plane for about five minutes before the three men stepped out, shaking hands with the president and waving to media and military personnel.
“Frankly, we didn’t think it was going to happen and it did,” Trump said. “We’re starting off on a new footing. This is a wonderful thing that he released the folks early.”
Trump said he believed Kim wanted to bring North Korea “into the real world,” and had high hopes for their planned meeting.
“I think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful,” Trump said. “My proudest achievement will be – this is part of it – when we denuclearize that entire peninsula.”
There has been no sign that Pompeo’s visit has cleared up the central question of whether North Korea will be willing to bargain away weapons its ruling family has long seen as crucial to its survival.
However, the release of the three men marked a dramatic victory for Trump’s embattled White House at a time when his foreign policy is under withering criticism after Tuesday’s US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.
His administration has also been under fire for ethics violations and a chaotic turnover of personnel, as well as a federal investigation of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election.
The arrival of the released prisoners in the dead of night created a made-for-TV moment for Trump, a former reality television host.
“I think you probably broke the alltime-in-history television rating for 3 o’clock in the morning,” Trump joked to cameras.