Trump-Kim summit: The noble history making event

Seated before a background of six North Korean flags and six Stars and Stripes, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un signed a vague denuclearization agreement at Singapore’s palatial The Capella Hotel on Tuesday.

The first-ever meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting U.S. president was, if nothing else, a drastic shift from where the two leaders stood just six months ago, trading insults and threatening each other with nuclear annihilation.

Four bullet points laid out goals of future talks without specifying the immediate steps either side had to take. Trump said Kim had already agreed to destroy a “major” nuclear testing site. He said human-rights were discussed very briefly.

“They are very provocative,” Trump told reporters. “We will save a tremendous amount of money.”

“The world is going to see a major change,” said Kim, dressed in his trademark dark Mao suit and horn-rimmed glasses during the signing ceremony.

“It worked out better than anybody could have predicted,” Trump told Kim. “It was a great honor to be with you.”

Trump added that North Korea’s denuclearization process will be starting very quickly, specifics not disclosed. North Korea has tested six nuclear bombs to date and now has missiles capable of targeting any American city. But the ending of joint military drills must be seen as a huge coup for the North Korea leader.

The document also says both leaders will strive “to build a lasting and stable peace regime” on the Korean Peninsula. Trump said he learned Kim is a “very talented man” who “loves his country very much” and agreed to invite him to the White House. Trump said he will travel to Pyongyang “at the appropriate time.” “We have developed a very special bond,” Trump said.

Trump and Kim began the first ever summit between the heads of these longtime enemies with a one-on-one meeting followed by an expanded bilateral meeting with advisers before lunch. The summit ended early in the afternoon.

Speaking to reporters between sessions, Trump said “the meeting was going very, very good, excellent relationship”. Kim was asked three times whether he would give up his nuclear weapons but did not reply.

“Well, it was not easy to get here,” Kim said. “The past worked as fetters on our limbs, and the old prejudices and practices worked as obstacles on our way forward. But we overcame all of them, and we are here today.”

Kim was in a relaxed mood before the summit, leaving his hotel Monday night for a walk around the Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay with his sister Kim Yo Jong and other top deputies, even stopping to snap a selfie.

After the lunch, Trump appeared to take Kim to check out his presidential Cadillac, in what observers suggested was an attempt to bond with the millennial despot.

It remains to be seen how the agreement will be implemented. Pompeo has promised North Korea an unprecedented and unique security guarantee if North Korea commits to denuclearize.

“If North Korea can get some astronomical and unforeseen benefit, the leadership might be able to sell that to the elite and the people,” he said. “I don’t see that kind of offer on the table but North Korea will be aware that is one potential outcome.”

U.S. officials said many more meetings would take place between the sides.

“Well, first [North Korea] signed four international agreements promising never to build nuclear weapons, and then four subsequent ones promising to give up what they promised never to build in the first place,” says Klingner.