Trump-Kim meeting: Democrats hit out at 'reality TV handshake' amid concerns over lack of specific promises from North Korea
Mr Trump says he trusts Mr Kim and that he believes the North Korean leader is sincere about his desire for denuclearisation
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump appears to have made a major concession to North Korea following his joint agreement with Kim Jong-un, ending joint military exercises with South Korea that he deemed “provocative” and “tremendously expensive”.
He said he also hoped to “bring home” the 32,000 US troops stationed in South Korea at some point in the future, but acknowledged such a move was not “part of the equation right now”.
In a press conference lasting more than an hour Mr Trump also said the North had begun dismantling a major missile engine testing site, and he praised Mr Kim as “very talented”.
Later, as Mr Trump's plane landed in Guam to refuel, Mr Trump told reporters that he trusted Mr Kim and that he believed the North Korean leader was sincere about his desire for denuclearisation.
“I can only tell you that from the time I’ve (dealt) with him, which is really starting 90 days ago," Mr Trump said. "I think he wants to get it done".
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At the end of the summitMr Trump and Mr Kim signed what Mr Trump claimed was a “comprehensive” document following the historic meeting aimed at the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. The president said he believed the process of denuclearisation would happen “very, very quickly”, adding that he had formed a “special bond” with Mr Kim.
Mr Kim who has been granted a measure of international legitimacy with the summit, said the two leaders had “decided to leave the past behind. The world will see a major change”.
In the first meeting of a sitting US president and a North Korean leader, the pair convened at a luxury resort on Singapore’s Sentosa Island, clasping hands as they stood on a red carpet in front of a backdrop of alternating US and North Korean flags. Mr Trump was first to arrive at the summit site, followed by Mr Kim, both readying for the 9am meeting that culminated dizzying weeks of negotiations over logistics and policy.
The pair started the momentous Singapore summit with an historic handshake for the world’s media before getting down to talks about North Korea’s nuclear programme.
Mr Trump and Mr Kim met one on one for about 40 minutes, joined only by translators. Then aides to each arrived for more discussions and a working lunch.
The US president said the meetings went “better than anybody could have expected” after the pair emerged from lunch and strolled together down a paved walkway before stopping and posing before the waiting news media.
Mr Trump said the meeting is “going great. We had a really fantastic meeting”. He added that there has been “a lot of progress. Really very positive”
It is believed that the signing will likely revolve around a promise to keep meeting.
The White House said discussions with North Korea have moved “more quickly than expected” and Mr Trump would leave Singapore on Tuesday night, after the summit. He had earlier been scheduled to leave on Wednesday. Mr Trump will visit military bases in Guam and Hawaii on his way back to Washington.
Teams of officials from both sides held working-level talks on Monday.
Senior officials travelling with Mr Trump included secretary of state Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton and White House chief of staff John Kelly. As Mr Trump was travelling to the Capella Hotel which was the site of the summit, he surprisingly tweeted about another senior official - economic adviser Larry Kudlow - with Mr Trump saying he had had a heart attack. The White House later said that Mr Kudlow was in a good condition in hospital having suffered a “very mild” heart attack.
Mr Kim’s delegation consisted of foreign minister Ri Yong Ho, defence minister No Kwang Chol and Kim Yong Chol, a close aide of Kim who has been instrumental in the diplomacy that culminated in Tuesday’s summit.
Kim Yo Jong, leader Kim’s younger sister, was also spotted in his delegation. She emerged as an influential figure in Pyongyang’s opaque leadership in February, when she led a North Korean delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea.
When Mr Trump initially agreed to meet with the North Korean leader, the US president spoke of his hope that their encounter could secure a major breakthrough and lead to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
If so, then the meeting would be the most important since Ronald Reagan met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva in November 1985.
Mr Trump has since sought to play down expectations, saying that the meeting will be an important first step, but that securing a deal will likely take many more meetings.
Given that what the US wants to get out of the summit, a rapid denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, may be different to what North Korea wants, there may be many such meetings. Many observers will be looking to see whether Mr Trump does extend an invitation to his counterpart to visit the White House.
Mr Trump signals an official end to the Korean War may be in sight. "Now we can all hope that it will soon end, and it will," he says.
China has suggested it may relax punishing sanctions on North Korea in the wake of the agreement signed between Pyongyang and the US.
China is the North's sole major ally and economic backer, but agreed to impose stronger sanctions at the behest of Washington after Kim Jong-un's regime conducted a string of provocative missile and nuclear tests.
Speaking in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said: "The UN Security Council resolutions that have been passed say that if North Korea respects and acts in accordance with the resolutions, then sanction measures can be adjusted, including to pause or remove the relevant sanctions.
"China has consistently held that sanctions are not the goal in themselves. The Security Council's actions should support and conform to the efforts of current diplomatic talks towards denuclearising the Korean peninsula, and promote a political solution for the peninsula."
Beijing's has long feared that a collapse of its isolated neighbour could push many thousands of refugees into northeastern China, or that nuclear war on the peninsula could contaminate swathes of the country.
"Chairman Kim has before him an opportunity like no other" for a "glorious new era of security and prosperity", Mr Trump says.
Mr Trump says that North Korea is already dismantling a "major missile engine testing site" - a concession not mentioned in the signed document, he says. "We agreed to that after the agreement was signed."
So many journalists in one room "makes me feel very uncomfortable", Mr Trump jokes as he prepares to take questions.
Mr Kim's human rights crimes are put to Mr Trump and he is asked why he calls the dictator "very talented".
He says: "Well, he is very talented. Anybody that takes over a situation like he did at 26 years of age and is able to run it, and run it tough - I don't say it was nice, or I don't say anything about it - very few people at that age, you can take one out of 10,000, probably."
Without the death of Otto Warmbier, Mr Trump says, "this would not have happened".
He adds: "It was a terrible thing, it was brutal, but a lot of people started to focus on what was going on."
Asked about the "security assurances" Mr Trump said he would give North Korea, and whether it meant a reduction in military deployments in the region, the president says "we're not reducing anything".
He says: "At some point, I have to be honest, and I used to say this during my campaign ... I want to get our soldiers out. I want to bring our soldiers back home.
"We have, right now, 32,000 soldiers in South Korea, and I'd like to be able to bring them back home. But that's not part of the equation right now."
But in an apparent major policy shift, Mr Trump adds that "we will be stopping the war games".
He adds the move will "save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see that the future negotiation is not going along like it should".
North Korea has long railed against joint US-South Korean military exercises which are held annually, claiming they are preparations for an invasion.
Mr Trump says he believes the exercises are "very provocative".
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