Historic summit awaits Trump, Kim U.S., North Korean leaders arrive in Singapore
SINGAPORE — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump flew into this bustling Southeast Asian island nation Sunday, landing hours apart for an improbable summit aimed at resolving a nuclear impasse and ending seven decades of official hostility.
Trump is expected to hold his first meeting with Kim on Tuesday with only translators in the room, leaving advisers to wait outside, a senior administration official said.
Trump’s advisers expect a brief encounter but do not know how long the president, who likes to improvise, will stay alone with Kim, keeping out Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other administration figures.
That part of the summit could be crucial. Trump said Saturday that he believes he will know within the first minute whether Kim is seriously considering eliminating his nuclear arsenal and infrastructure, as the U.S. demands.
Kim landed during mid-afternoon and appeared relaxed in the swarm of cameras and gladhanding Singapore government officials at the airport.
Trump arrived five hours later.
He waved from the stairs of Air Force One, was warmly greeted by Singapore’s foreign minister, and then disappeared into his limousine.
It was a once-unthinkable scene.
Trump had long derided Kim and traded insults with him. Now he is poised to become the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader.
For Kim, the transformation is even more remarkable. The longtime pariah on the global stage basked in the kind of attention — and acceptance — that his family has sought for three generations.
Onlookers clamored to catch a glimpse or a snap cellphone picture of Kim in his black Mercedes limousine as his 20-vehicle motorcade sped from Changi Airport to a protected area at the luxury St. Regis Singapore hotel where he is staying.
Later, Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, ushered Kim around the palace office to shake hands with officials, pose for pictures and chat from regal cream-colored chairs, all broadcast live from a government Facebook account.
“The entire world is watching this historic summit,” Kim told Lee during their welcome meeting. Lee said earlier that Singapore’s government will gladly pay the $20 million it cost to host the summit.
Trump was accompanied by White House chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser John Bolton. Pompeo, who planned to brief regional allies after the summit, had his own plane.
The White House sought to dispel multiple reports that Trump has shrugged off briefings and plans to wing his first bid at nuclear diplomacy. “During the flight, the president spent time meeting with his staff, reading materials and preparing for his meetings in Singapore,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
His public schedule today is light. He plans to meet with Lee at noon and then visit with U.S. Embassy staff members who had scrambled to help arrange the visit.
Sung Kim, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea now posted to the Philippines, was scheduled to lead a U.S. delegation for a working group session with a North Korean team at the Ritz Carlton Hotel.
The turn toward diplomacy with Kim came directly after Trump upended the normally cordial gathering of close allies at the annual Group of Seven conference — exchanging angry words with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after he left early and refusing to sign a joint statement.
The trail of excitement following Kim, who has long sought global legitimacy, puts added pressure on Trump to win something more than good feelings from the summit, even if the gains are not immediate.
Worldwide anticipation for Tuesday’s summit between the most unconventional American president in modern times and an autocrat who is perhaps the world’s most isolated leader has grown quickly since the summit was put together at a lightning pace over the past few weeks.
Singapore asked that skyscrapers remain lighted at night to present a more dazzling skyline. About 2,500 journalists have registered, the largest contingent ever hosted in Singapore, according to the Singapore Straits Times. That’s on par with the most recent Olympics in South Korea, an event that took years to plan and lasted for weeks.
The trip is monumental for Kim, the third member of his family to rule, on a personal level.
The flight was only his second out of North Korea since he assumed power in 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il. Kim flew on a Boeing 747 from Air China that radar showed stayed far inland, in Chinese airspace.
The Kim government, which rules by repression and has jailed hundreds of thousands of its citizens, is intensely worried about assassination and coup attempts, making Kim especially anxious when he leaves his rigidly controlled nation.
Two additional North Korean planes were also tracked making their way from Pyongyang, thought to be carrying his entourage, food and other supplies for Kim.
Trump has embraced the hype, saying he’s on a “mission of peace” and “we’re going to be carrying the hearts of millions of people” into the negotiations.
Trump said Saturday in Canada that he would decide how to handle Kim on the “spur of the moment.”