US President Donald Trump landed in Singapore on Sunday ahead of a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Singapore – US President Donald Trump landed in Singapore
on Sunday ahead of a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un.
Trump landed at Paya Lebar Airbase at 8:21 pm (12.21 GMT). Wearing a
suit with a bright blue tie, he descended the airplane stair unit
before waving to the press and Singapore government officials.
The US president was received on the tarmac by Singapore Foreign
Minister Vivian Balakrishnan before being whisked off in a black
motorcade to the Shangri-La hotel, where he will be staying for the
duration of his visit.
He is due to hold bilateral talks with
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday.
Trump arrived several hours after Kim, who landed in the city-state
in the mid-afternoon before his own meeting with Lee in the evening.
Trump’s meeting with Kim, which is scheduled to take place at the
Capella Hotel on Tuesday morning, will mark the first time a sitting
US president has met a North Korean leader.
Their talks will focus on
reaching an agreement over the denuclearization of North Korea in
exchange for the easing of economic and diplomatic sanctions.
READ: Kim Jong Un arrives in Singapore for historic summit with Trump
Before departing from Quebec on Saturday, Trump said he was on a
„mission of peace“ but warned that the face-to-face talks were a
„one-time shot.“
„I feel confident Kim Jong Un wants to do something great for his
people,“ Trump said, adding that „he won’t have this opportunity
again.“
He also insisted he would know within the „first minute“ whether
North Korea was serious about peace, using „my touch, my feel“ to
figure out the situation.
There had been weeks of speculation about whether the meeting between
the two leaders would actually happen. Trump pulled out of the
scheduled talks on May 24, citing Pyongyang’s „open hostility“ and
„tremendous anger.“ After a conciliatory message from Pyongyang,
Trump announced a day later that the meeting appeared to be back on
track.
A flurry of diplomatic talks followed in an effort to resuscitate the
summit, which involved top North Korean official Kim Yong Chol
travelling to Washington to meet with Trump, and to deliver a
personal letter to Trump from Kim himself.
Intense preparations for the summit have been under way since, with
multiple teams sent to Singapore, South and North Korea and the US to
hammer out the details.
Uncertainty still persists on what a denuclearization deal for North
Korea would look like, with Pyongyang unlikely to be as willing to
relinquish its missile weapons programme on the same schedule and to
the same degree that Washington expects.
AFP
