Kim Jong Un arrives in Singapore for historic summit with Trump

FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un disembarks from a plane

FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un disembarks from a plane

Published Jun 10, 2018

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Singapore - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un landed in Singapore

on Sunday ahead of his historic summit with US President Donald

Trump, local media reported. 

Kim landed at Singapore Changi Airport at 2.38 pm (0638 GMT) on an

Air China flight and was to be taken to the St Regis hotel, where his

delegation is expected to stay, Channel NewsAsia reported.

There was no footage of the leader's arrival.

Trump was due to arrive several hours later from Quebec, where he

attended the G7 summit with other world leaders. 

The Trump-Kim summit, which will be held at the Capella Hotel on

Tuesday morning, will mark the first time a North Korean leader has

met with a sitting US president. 

The talks will focus on reaching an agreement on the denuclearization

of North Korea in exchange for the easing of economic and diplomatic

sanctions. 

As he departed on Saturday, Trump said he was on a "mission of peace"

but also 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, after Trump pulled out of the

scheduled talks on May 24, citing Pyongyang's "open hostility" and

"tremendous anger".

However, after a conciliatory message from Pyongyang, Trump announced

a day later that the meeting may 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 have been underway since, with multiple teams

sent to Singapore, South and North Korea, and the US to hammer out

the details of the summit. 

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.

DPA

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