Trump-Kim summit: Singapore meeting between US and North Korean leaders nears – live
|
Version 1 of 37. It appears Trump is tweeting from the car, as he is driven to the talks. Just won big Supreme Court decision on Voting! Great News! Donald Trump has left his hotel and is en route to Sentosa for the talks, which are due to begin in about an hour. Kim Jong-un has not yet been seen leaving his hotel. “It is Donald Trump’s recurring boast that with the Singapore summit with Kim Jong-un, he has succeeded in negotiations with North Korea where his predecessors failed,” writes Julian Borger. “But the claim obscures a long history of agreements made and broken by both countries. The lesson of two major deals, in 1994 and 2005, is that it is much easier to reach agreements than to implement them. In fact, the complex, fraught process of implementation has usually brought with it new flashpoints and new crises.” For more on the history of US-North Korea negotiations, read Borger’s full piece here. The White House has released read-outs of phone calls between Donald Trump and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, which took place yesterday about the summit. The White House said the president would “consult closely” with Abe after today’s talks, and that Trump and the South Korean leader would “continue their close coordination following President Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore”. North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun has taken the unusual step of reporting Kim Jong-un’s arrival in Singapore on its front page this morning. It is rare for the official newspaper of the ruling Korean Workers’ party to print coverage of the leader’s activities so quickly. The state-run KCNA news agency has also released photos of Kim during his walkabout on the eve of his meeting with Donald Trump. Donald Trump has, of course, been tweeting since he landed in Singapore. He was upbeat upon arrival but this morning was both cautious – warning that he would be able to tell quickly whether a deal would be possible – and triumphant, sticking it to the “haters and losers”. Great to be in Singapore, excitement in the air! Meetings between staffs and representatives are going well and quickly....but in the end, that doesn’t matter. We will all know soon whether or not a real deal, unlike those of the past, can happen! The fact that I am having a meeting is a major loss for the U.S., say the haters & losers. We have our hostages, testing, research and all missle launches have stoped, and these pundits, who have called me wrong from the beginning, have nothing else they can say! We will be fine! It’s been a bumpy ride to get to this point. Since the date and location of the summit were announced last month, both sides have threatened to call off the talks, with Trump following through less than a month ago, announcing that the meeting would not proceed owing to what he perceived as “tremendous anger and open hostility” from the North Korean leader. After a visit from Kim Jong-un’s top aide Kim Yong-chol, who will be present at the talks today, Trump announced the summit would go ahead after all. Benjamin Haas has this excellent briefing on the focus of the talks, who the main players are and what they’re hoping to get out of the summit. Welcome to our live coverage of the US-North Korea summit. Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are meeting in Singapore today for talks that many – including the two leaders – thought might never happen. Our team of reporters bringing you the news as it unfolds include our diplomatic editor, Julian Borger, and foreign correspondent Benjamin Haas who are on the ground in Singapore. Our Tokyo correspondent, Justin McCurry, and Beijing bureau chief, Lily Kuo, will also be keeping an eye on things. Trump and Kim will be meeting at the Capella Hotel on the island resort of Sentosa and this will be the first meeting between a sitting US president and the leader of North Korea. Here’s how the day is scheduled to go: Trump and Kim will meet at 9am local time and sit down for a one-on-one discussion (with translators, but no advisers present) at 9.15. That talk is scheduled to go for 45 minutes before they are joined by advisers for “an expanded bilateral meeting”. At 11.30am Trump and Kim will take part in a “working lunch”. At 4pm, Trump is scheduled to talk to the media and leaving Singapore at 7pm. We’ll bring you the news as the day unfolds. Get in touch in the comments below or on Twitter @mskatelyons |