NO FORMAL REQUEST ABOUT TRUMP-KIM SUMMIT: SINGAPORE PRIME MINISTER

SINGAPORE — Singapore has not received any “formal” request to host an eagerly awaited meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the city-state’s prime minister said on Saturday.

Trump said on Friday that the list of potential sites for the meeting had been narrowed to two, without saying where. Some reports have said that Singapore, a stable and prosperous financial hub in Southeast Asia, is one of the potential locations.

The meeting, expected in the coming weeks, follows a dizzying detente in recent months between the nuclear-armed North and its neighbour.

The leaders agreed to pursue a permanent peace treaty and the complete denuclearisation of their divided peninsula.

Speaking at a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong dampened speculation about the city-state potentially hosting the Trump-Kim talks.

“As for the venue, we’ve also read the same reports as you in the newspapers about the possible places where a US-North Korea meeting can take place,” he told reporters. —