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.
This is Dennis Rodman's message to the world having landed in Singapore. To be clear, US officials have said he will have nothing to do with the summit.
For better part of an hour, President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will square off one on one, alone but for a pair of translators. It is no doubt a risk to hold such a monumental meeting with barely anyone to bear witness, particularly if there are disagreements between the two sides about what was said.
Mr Trump and Mr Kim will meet on Singapore's Sentosa Island for roughly 45 minutes while their entourages wait nearby.
The huddle will come before a larger meeting and a working lunch attended by top advisers to the president and their North Korean counterparts.
Away from the summit, Mr Trump has been dealing with the fallout from a spat with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau which many have seen as not the most ideal preparation for the meeting with Kim Jong-un.
Defence Secretary James Mattis has said that Washington has picked up no indications that North Korea's military is in a heightened state of alert in the run-up to the Singapore summit.
Mr Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday that "All's quiet" in North Korea.
He said he does not expect it to include a negotiation over reducing the number of US troops in South Korea — currently about 28,000. He says that, at least initially, this is a matter between Washington and Seoul.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un set a deadline of Tuesday for ending the Singapore summit, prompting President Donald Trump to move up his departure to Tuesday instead of Wednesday as planned, Bloomberg News has reported.
Citing two US officials familiar with the planning, Bloomberg said Mr Trump had been willing to stay longer if negotiations were progressing, but since Mr Kim set definite plans for departure, so did Mr Trump.
How it will be covered: Sean Hannity, a Fox News host and close ally of Donald Trump, will sit down with the president for an exclusive one-on-one after the summit concludes.
Security will be extraordinarily tight, and the ever-reclusive North Korean regime is reportedly taking precautions to another level by bringing along a portable toilet for Kim Jong-un.
According to South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper, the move is intended to "deny determined sewer divers insights into to the supreme leader's stools."
At around 5:30 am Singapore time, Donald Trump weighed in by saying preliminary meetings are going well but leaving open the possibility of failure:
Journalists massing in Singapore for this historic meeting are reportedly being given free USB fans - and seasoned national security correspondents are warning against using what may be surveillance tools from a North Korean regime that is notorious for monitoring its citizens:
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