SINGAPORE: The duo are due to meet face-to-face tomorrow in one of the most anticipated summit in recent world history. Mr Trump is looking forward to striking a deal that will lead to the denuclearisation of one of America’s most bitter foes.
In return for giving up his nuclear weapons, Mr Kim is seeking relief from crippling sanctions to ease the economic burden on his reclusive regime.
If the summit goes ahead, it will be the first ever meeting between a serving US president and a North Korean leader.
Mr Kim arrived in Singapore yesterday afternoon on a plane loaned by China amid huge security precautions on the city-state island.
A large limousine with a North Korean flag could then be seen surrounded by other black vehicles with tinted windows as it sped through the city’s streets to the St Regis Hotel, where China’s President Xi Jinping once stayed.
Bodyguards in dark suits jogged alongside his limousine, and grim-faced North Korean security guards warned hotel guests not to take pictures as Mr Kim walked to his Mercedes Benz limousine.
Mr Kim has only publicly left his country three times since taking power after his despot father’s death in late 2011 — twice traveling to China and once across his shared border with the South to the southern part of the Demilitarised Zone in recent summits with the leaders of China and South Korea respectively.
The meeting with Mr Trump is expected to give Mr Kim recognition as the leader of a “normal” country and as an equal of the US leader.
The Express News
