US president and North Korea’s leaders about to hold face-to-face talks in unprecedented summit in Singapore.
Singapore — Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are set to sit down for unprecedented talks between the leaders of two long-hostile nations, as the world watches anxiously for signs of a peace deal and an agreement on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
The meeting on Tuesday between the US president and North Korea’s leader, unthinkable until recent months and uncertain until June 1, is a high-stakes and politically risky venture into summit diplomacy by two unpredictable personalities who have famously exchanged personal insults and threats of war.
US officials and the North Korean state news agency struck a hopeful tone as the meeting approached, while negotiators from both countries met privately in the last hours to iron out agreements, such as over the definition of denuclearisation and the terms under which Pyongyang might agree to dismantle its nuclear arsenal.
Early on Tuesday, just a few hours before his meeting with Kim, Trump wrote on Twitter that «meetings between staffs and representatives are going well and quickly». He quickly cautioned, however, that «we will all know soon whether or not a real deal… can happen».
His comments echoed those of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who said on Monday talks between the countries were «moving quite rapidly and we anticipate they will come to their logical conclusion even more quickly than we had anticipated».
«I’m very optimistic that we will have a successful outcome from our meetings tomorrow,» he said.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) heralded the summit as part of a «changed era.
