'The world will see a major change': Trump and Kim sign historic document
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have signed a historic document where the North Korean leader committed to working towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
The joint document included four main points and involved the US committing to provide security guarantees for North Korea.
“President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” said the joint statement issued after their historic summit.
“The letter that we’re signing is very comprehensive and I think both sides are going to be very impressed with the result,” Trump said as the pair signed the document at the neutral Singapore hotel.
“A lot of goodwill went into this, a lot of work, a lot of preparation.”
The US president said the process of denuclearisation would happen “very, very quickly.”
The document however did not give any details on how denuclearisation would be achieved.
Kim said via a translator that “the world will see a major change” following the signing of the document.
Trump said the pair had “developed a very special bond” and that he and Kim are “going to take care of a very big and very dangerous problem for the world.”
As a sign of their budding new friendship, Trump invited Kim to the White House when prompted by a reporter. Both men thanked each other for their roles in making the summit happen.
The US president said he would address the media within two hours to discuss the document “at great length”.
The document also looks to improve US and North Korean relations as well as developing a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
The US and North Korea also committed to recovering prisoners of war.
The US president earlier said the historic summit with the North Korean leader on Tuesday had gone “better than anybody could have expected”.
Kim stood silently alongside Trump as he spoke to media during a post-lunch stroll through the gardens of the Singapore hotel where the summit was held.
However, the North Korean leader had earlier described their meeting as a “a good prelude to peace”.
Both men walked to Trump’s limousine and looked in at the rear seat, with Trump apparently showing Kim something inside. They then resumed their walk.
“A lot of progress – really very positive. I think better than anybody could have expected,” Trump told journalists.
Should they succeed in making a diplomatic breakthrough, it could bring lasting change to the security landscape of Northeast Asia, like the visit of former U.S. President Richard Nixon to China in 1972 led to the transformation of China.
Trump and Kim’s historic handshake
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un earlier made history, becoming the first sitting US and North Korean leaders to meet and shake hands, as they seek to end a tense decades-old nuclear stand-off.
The two men strode toward each other and shared the momentous handshake beneath the white-washed walls of an upscale hotel in neutral Singapore, before sitting down for a half-day of meetings with major ramifications for the world.
They shook hands for several seconds, Trump reaching out to touch the North Korean leader on his right shoulder.
Trump, who had insisted he would know “within the first minute” if Kim was serious about denuclearisation, said he “felt really great” and that it was “an honour” to meet the North Korean dictator.
“We’re going to have a great discussion,” Trump said. “A tremendous success. We will have a great relationship.”
Kim says through an interpreter that it “was not easy to get here” and that there “were obstacles but we overcame them to be here.”
The extraordinary summit was unthinkable only months ago.
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Then, the two nuclear-armed foes appeared on the verge of conflict, as Kim conducted nuclear and missile tests and the two leaders slung personal insults.
Trump had cajoled the international community to exert “maximum pressure” to buckle Kim’s regime and threatened to unleash “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if Pyongyang did not disarm.
For his part, Kim called the US leader “mentally deranged” and a “dotard” as he fired off a series of provocative weapons tests.
That seemed a distant memory amid the palms of the ultra-exclusive Capella Hotel.
It is a potentially legacy-defining meeting for both men — comparable to president Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to China, or Ronald Reagan’s summit 1986 with Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik.
And it is part of what Trump calls a “one-time” offer to resolve the stand-off through diplomacy.
“We will all know soon whether or not a real deal, unlike those of the past, can happen!” Trump tweeted shortly before departing for the summit, before also revealing Director of the United States National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, had suffered a heart attack.
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2018
Our Great Larry Kudlow, who has been working so hard on trade and the economy, has just suffered a heart attack. He is now in Walter Reed Medical Center.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2018
With Reuters.
