Trump-Kim summit to be held in Singapore

International Desk: US President Donald Trump said he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on 12 June.

"We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" the US leader tweeted.

In March, Mr Trump stunned the world by accepting an invitation to meet Mr Kim for an unprecedented sit-down.

The pair had previously exchanged insults and threats. The breakthrough came after landmark talks between North and South Korea.

Mr Trump's announcement came hours after he welcomed home three US detainees released by North Korea.

Their release came during a visit to Pyongyang by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to arrange details of the meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Kim.

No sitting US president has ever met a North Korean leader. The White House said the trio were freed as a gesture of goodwill ahead of the summit, which Mr Trump earlier said he thought would be a "big success".

"I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful," he said.

The main issue under discussion will be North Korea's nuclear weapons, which the US is demanding Pyongyang give up. The North has carried out six nuclear tests, despite international condemnation and sanctions.

There has been no word from Pyongyang on its agenda or what it might offer at the summit, although a key issue is certain to be the presence of 30,000 US military personnel in South Korea, along with the removal of sanctions.

At a summit in April, Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed to work to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons, although the means of achieving this were not detailed and previous such pledges have been abandoned.

Still, the dramatic meeting - which saw a North Korean leader setting foot on South Korean soil for the first time since the end of the 1953 Korean War - marked a historic breakthrough between the two countries.

Singapore has been used before for high-profile diplomatic occasions. In 2015, the leaders of China and Taiwan held historic talks in the South East Asian city-state, their first in more than 60 years.

The US and Singapore have a close relationship. Singapore has diplomatic ties with North Korea but suspended all trade with the country in November last year as international sanctions were tightened.

Other locations which had been considered for the Trump-Kim summit included Mongolia and the Korean border's demilitarised zone (DMZ).

Source: BBC


risingbd/Dhaka/May 10, 2018/AI