Singapore, June 12: Historic meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will meet in the city-state of Singapore on June 12 to celebrate the historic meeting in which they will discuss the denuclearization process in North Korea to which Kim committed during his meeting with South Korea. This was announced on Thursday by President Trump, just hours after the release of three Americans who were detained in North Korea.
"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong-un and I will take place in Singapore on June 12. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace! ", Wrote Trump on Twitter. The announcement comes hours after the US president received in Washington the three American prisoners freed by Pyongyang during the visit of Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, to the hermetic country. The prisoner were Kim Dong-chul, a pastor born in South Korea (imprisoned since 2015) and Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang-duk, who worked at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology and have been detained since 2017. The release is interpreted as a gesture of goodwill by Kim before the imminent meeting with Trump. Judging by the succession of events, it seems that the freedom of the three men was a sine qua non condition for the announcement of the summit.
The two leaders are expected to discuss the development program of nuclear weapons and tests, which have raised tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, according to Reuters. The historic appointment comes after another historic meeting, which was produced at the end of April between the leaders of the two Koreas. This meeting took place in the Demilitarized Zone and the final communiqué of the summit included a commitment to reduce the arsenal of war on the borderline of the two nations and achieve a peninsula free of atomic weapons, Javier Espinosa said at the time. Trump once again used social networks for that announcement. Previously, he had also sent a message on Twitter saying that five of the most wanted leaders of the Islamic State had been captured.
Singapore - almost 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) south of Pyongyang - represents neutral ground for the two leaders. The city-state of 5.5 million people has security alliances with the US, an embassy of North Korea and strong ties with China. The government also has a history of organizing high profile diplomatic events in a short time. It hosted the historic meeting in 2015 of Chinese President Xi Jinping with his then counterpart of Taiwan Ma Ying Jeou. Still, Kim's willingness to travel so far from the security of Pyongyang, the farthest place that will have been as a leader, could be considered a concession by North Korea. Trump heads to the summit hoping to get Kim's agreement to give up his nuclear weapons and end North Korea's ballistic missile program. US intelligence agencies have warned that the regime is about to launch a nuclear attack on the American continent.