HISTORIC MEETING TO TAKE PLACE TUESDAY MORNING
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jun. 10, 2018) — At approximately 8:25 a.m. EDT/8:25 p.m. local time, Air Force One landed at Paya Lebar Air Base in Singapore for President Donald Trump’s summit on Tuesday with North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un.
At 8:29 a.m. EDT, Trump appeared at the doorway of the aircraft, waved briefly, and walked down the stairway alone toward the waiting presidential limousine.
He first shook the hands of waiting officials, including the Singaporean foreign minister, then entered the limousine without fanfare. At 8:32, the limousine began to pull away from the air base, with Trump seated in the back and a substantial motorcade behind.
The summit was scheduled last month for June 12 but temporarily canceled, then put back on Trump’s schedule after North Korean official Kim Yong-Chol flew to New York with a small delegation and met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on May 30. On June 1, Yong-Chol traveled to the White House and delivered an oversized envelope to Trump, then spoke with him in the Oval Office for more than an hour, according to reports.
On Monday, Trump will meet with Singaporean government officials, according to Fox News’s John Roberts. His meeting with Jong-Un will take place on Tuesday morning, local time.
By meeting with Jong-Un, Trump hopes to achieve the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Less than a year ago, North Korea was launching missiles over northern Japan and threatening to take aim at Guam, a U.S. territory. The hermit nation has been developing nuclear weaponry for several decades.
Pompeo met with Jong-Un on two occasions, the first of which occurred prior to Pompeo’s confirmation and swearing-in as Secretary of State in late April. In February of last year, Pompeo was confirmed as Trump’s CIA director.
The U.S. and other nations have imposed crushing economic sanctions on North Korea given its provocations of last year. Malnutrition has since plagued the people of the communist nation formed after the armistice of 1953 was signed following the Korean conflict.
Fox reported that Jong-Un’s trip to Singapore for the summit is “only the third time” he has left North Korea since he became its dictator in 2012 following the death of his father, Kim Jong-Il. Jong-Un arrived in Singapore earlier on Sunday, where he met with government officials.
Trump will be the first U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader. In remarks to reporters on Friday morning just prior to his departure for the G7 Summit in Canada, Trump said that he has been preparing “all my life” for negotiations with North Korea.
That statement came after the media pounced on his words from the day before: “I think I’m very well-prepared. I don’t think I have to prepare very much. It’s about attitude.” However, Trump then said, “I think I’ve been preparing for the summit for a long time, as has the other side.”