Know How The Trump-Kim Summit Took Place

Historical Trump-Kim summit:

The historical Trump-Kim summit meeting was the first of its kind between a sitting American president Donald Trump and a leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un. It’s been a rather long journey of mistrust, war and skirmishes that finally culminated in the historic summit in Singapore. Let us take a brief look at the recent events that finally lead to the signing of the agreement. 

After an unusually provocative 2017 during which North Korea tested a thermonuclear warhead and three intercontinental ballistic missiles, Kim Jong Un initiates diplomacy in his annual New Year address. He called for improved relations and engagement with South Korea but added he has a nuclear button on his desk. Trump responded that he has a bigger and more powerful nuclear button adding “And my Button works”. North and South Korean officials meet at a border village and agree on North Korea sending athletes and delegates to the Winter Olympics in the South.

In March 2018, South Korean envoys meet Trump in Washington and delivered an invitation from Kim to meet. Trump accepted the invitation. Trump confirmed that Mike Pompeo, then the CIA chief, had met Kim secretly in North Korea and said “a good relationship was formed” heading into the anticipated summit. North Korea suspended nuclear and Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) tests and planned to close its nuclear test site as part of a shift in its national focus to developing its economy. Pompeo, US Secretary of State, made another visit to Pyongyang to prepare for the Trump-Kim summit. North Korea released three Americans who had been imprisoned.

In May 2018, Trump announced he will meet with Kim in Singapore on June 12. After few days, North Korea abruptly cancelled a high-level meeting with the South and threatened to cancel the Summit with Trump too in protest over U.S.-South Korean military exercises and the U.S. commented that the North should follow the “Libya model” of denuclearization by eliminating everything upfront.

North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol, the most senior North Korean official visited the United States. He arrived in New York for pre-summit negotiations with Pompeo. After meeting Kim Yong Chol at the White House, Trump announced that his meeting with Kim Jong Un is back on for June 12. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted that the Trump-Kim meeting will be held at Singapore’s Capella Hotel. Trump and Kim arrive in Singapore for the first meeting between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader on 12th of June.

The Outcome of Kim-Trump Summit-

US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Unsigned a document pledging to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in return for US providing security guarantees to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

You may also like to Read: