Six things we learnt from the historic meeting
Kim likes a selfie and Trump hardly slept while in Singapore
US President Donald Trump hailed his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jongun as a “very great day in the history of the world”. Below are six things we learnt.
1 BRING THE BOYS HOME In a jaw-dropping postsummit press conference lasting more than an hour, Trump said he wanted to bring home the 30,0000 or so US troops currently stationed in South Korea. Picking up a theme he had hammered on the presidential campaign trail, but which worries allies in Seoul and Tokyo who rely on US defence, he said: “I want to get our soldiers out. I want to bring our soldiers back home.”
2 SLEEPLESS IN SINGAPORE Summitry is hard work and Trump claimed he “had not slept for 25 hours” during his time in Singapore, which lasted just under 48.
The US president had an unusually light public schedule the day before the summit and holed up in his hotel the whole afternoon and evening — although he was tweeting very early on DDay and again on his way to the meeting.
Kim also proved to be a secret night owl, stunning onlookers in Singapore by going on an unannounced night-time prowl of the city sights.
3 AIR FORCE UN Before the summit, several commentators wondered how the travel-shy Kim was going to get to Singapore, having not flown such a distance since coming to power in December 2011.
In the end, he simply hitched a ride from his pal President Xi Jinping on an Air China Boeing 747 — a surprising move given North Korea’s insistence on “juche” or self-reliance. It may have been a safer move than taking his usual aircraft, a Soviet-made Ilyushin-62 dubbed Air Force Un. 4 LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION According to former hotel developer Donald Trump, the beaches of North Korea offer ripe opportunities — although he gave a slightly sinister reason for knowing that.
“They have great beaches,” he said. “You see that whenever they are exploding the cannons into the ocean.
“I said, ‘Boy look at that view.’ Wouldn’t that make a great condo? I said, ‘Instead of doing that, you could have the best hotels in the world.’”
5 SELFIE STAR Kim capped months of a diplomatic charm offensive by posing for a public selfie for the first time. The photo of a grinning Kim, taken and posted online by Singapore’s foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan, astonished social media users.
The summit held in Singapore was an important milestone in the advancement of sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula.” Antonio Guterres | UN Secretary-General
6 1 IN 10,000 Gone were the days of “little rocket man” and “sick puppy” — names Trump had previously used for his summit buddy.
Now Kim was praised as “talented”, “very smart” and a “good negotiator” who “loves his country very much”.
Few people could take over North Korea at the age of 26 and “run it tough”, Trump mused. “1 in 10,000 couldn’t do it,” he added, with the caveat: “I didn’t say he was nice about it.”