{"id":9727,"date":"2018-06-12T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T11:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=9727"},"modified":"2018-06-12T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T11:27:00","slug":"trump-kim-sign-agreement-after-historic-summit-but-few-specifics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=9727","title":{"rendered":"Trump, Kim sign agreement after historic summit but few specifics"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Steve Holland,\u00a0Jack Kim,\u00a0Soyoung Kim<\/strong>
\nSINGAPORE (Reuters<\/strong>) – U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged on Tuesday to work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula while Washington committed to provide security guarantees for its old enemy.
\nBut a joint statement signed at the end of their historic summit in Singapore gave few details on how either goal would be achieved.
\n\u201cPresident Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,\u201d said the statement.
\nDPRK is the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea, the formal name of North Korea.
\nTrump said he expected the denuclearisation process to start \u201cvery, very quickly\u201d. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean officials would hold follow-up negotiations \u201cat the earliest possible date\u201d, the statement said.
\nPolitical analysts said the summit had yielded only symbolic results and nothing tangible.
\n\u201cIt is unclear if further negotiations will lead to the end goal of denuclearisation,\u201d said Anthony Ruggiero, senior fellow of Washington\u2019s Foundation for Defence of Democracies think tank. \u201cThis looks like a restatement of where we left negotiations more than 10 years ago and not a major step forward.\u201d
\nThe document also made no mention of the international sanctions that have crippled North Korea\u2019s economy for pursuing its nuclear weapons programme.
\nNor was there any reference to finally signing a peace treaty. North Korea and the United States were on opposite sides in the 1950-53 Korean War and are technically still at war, as the conflict, in which millions of people died, was concluded only with a truce.
\nBut the joint statement did say the two sides had agreed to recovering the remains of prisoners of war and of those missing in action and repatriating them.
\nChina, the third party to the truce, said it hoped North Korea and the United States could reach a basic consensus on denuclearisation.
\n\u201cAt the same time, there needs to be a peace mechanism for the peninsula to resolve North Korea\u2019s reasonable security concerns,\u201d China\u2019s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, told reporters in Beijing.
\nIf the joint statement does lead to a lasting detente, it could fundamentally change the security landscape of Northeast Asia, just as former U.S. President Richard Nixon visit to Beijing in 1972 led to the transformation of China.
\nBut Li Nan, senior researcher at Pangoal, a Beijing-based Chinese public policy think tank, said the meeting had only symbolic significance.
\n\u201cIt is too early to call it a turning point in North Korea-U.S. relations,\u201d Li said.
\n\u2018LEAVING PAST BEHIND\u2019
\nHowever, the dollar jumped to a 3-week top on Tuesday and Asian shares rose on news of the agreement.
\nBefore signing what Trump described as a \u201ccomprehensive\u201d document, Kim said the two leaders had a historic meeting \u201cand decided to leave the past behind. The world will see a major change.\u201d
\nTrump said he had formed a \u201cvery special bond\u201d with Kim and that relationship with North Korea would be very different.
\n\u201cPeople are going to be very impressed and people are going to be very happy and we are going to take care of a very dangerous problem for the world,\u201d Trump said.
\nAsked whether he would invite Kim to the White House, Trump said: \u201cAbsolutely, I will.\u201d
\nHe called Kim \u201cvery smart\u201d and a \u201cvery worthy, very hard negotiator.\u201d
\n\u201cI learned he\u2019s a very talented man. I also learned that he loves his country very much.\u201d
\nDuring a post-lunch stroll through the gardens of the Singapore hotel where the summit was held, Trump said the meeting had gone \u201cbetter than anybody could have expected\u201d.
\nKim stood silently alongside, but the North Korean leader had earlier described their summit as a \u201ca good prelude to peace\u201d.
\nBoth men walked to Trump\u2019s bullet-proof limousine, nicknamed \u201cThe Beast\u201d, and looked in at the rear seat, with Trump apparently showing Kim something inside. They then resumed their walk.
\nThey had appeared cautious and serious when they first arrived for the summit at the Capella hotel on Singapore\u2019s Sentosa, a resort island with luxury hotels, a casino, manmade beaches and a Universal Studios theme park.
\nBut, with cameras of the world\u2019s press trained on them, they displayed an initial atmosphere of bonhomie as they met on the verandah of the Capella, a refurbished 19th century British regimental officers\u2019 mess.
\nBody language expert said both men tried to project command as they met, but also displayed signs of nerves.
\n\u2018LIKE A MOVIE\u2019
\nAfter a handshake, they were soon smiling and holding each other by the arm, before Trump guided Kim to the library where they held a meeting with only their interpreters. Trump had said on Saturday he would know within a minute of meeting Kim whether he would reach a deal.
\nInside, they sat alongside each other against a backdrop of North Korean and U.S. flags, with Kim beaming broadly as the U.S. president gave him a thumbs up.
\nAfter initial exchanges lasting around 40 minutes, Trump and Kim emerged, walking side-by-side through the colonnaded hotel before entering a meeting room, where they were joined by their most senior officials.
\nKim was heard telling Trump through a translator: \u201cI think the entire world is watching this moment. Many people in the world will think of this as a scene from a fantasy…science fiction movie.\u201d
\nTrump was joined by Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, and John Kelly, White House Chief of Staff, for the expanded talks, while Kim\u2019s team included former military intelligence chief Kim Yong Chol, foreign minister Ri Yong Ho and Ri Su Yong, vice chairman of the ruling Workers\u2019 Party.
\nAs the two leaders met, Singapore navy vessels, and air force Apache helicopters patrolled, while fighter jets and an Gulfstream 550 early warning aircraft circled.
\nAfter the meetings, the two teams and other senior officials met for a working lunch, where beef short ribs, sweet and sour pork and \u201cDaegu Jormin\u201d, or Korean braised cod, were served for the main course, according to the menu. That was to be followed by dark chocolate tarts, pastries and vanilla ice cream for dessert. The North Korean leader\u2019s sister and close confidante Kim Yo Jong was among the lunch party.
\nAdditional reporting by Dewey Sim, Aradhana Aravindan, Himani Sarkar, Miral Fahmy, John Geddie, Joyce Lee, Grace Lee, Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom in Singapore and Christine Kim in Seoul; Editing Raju Gopalakrishnan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Steve Holland,\u00a0Jack Kim,\u00a0Soyoung Kim SINGAPORE (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged on Tuesday to work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula while Washington committed to provide security guarantees for its old enemy. But a joint statement signed at the end of their historic summit in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}