Singapore: Clasping hands and forecasting future peace, President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un committed Tuesday to “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula during the first meeting in history between a sitting US President and a North Korean leader.
Meeting with staged ceremony on a Singapore island, Mr Trump and Mr Kim expressed optimism throughout roughly five hours of talks, with Mr Trump thanking Mr Kim afterward “for taking the first bold step toward a bright new future for his people.” Mr Kim, for his part, said the leaders had “decided to leave the past behind” and promised: “The world will see a major change.”
Yet as Mr Trump toasted the summit’s results, he faced mounting questions about whether he got too little and gave away too much — including an agreement to halt US military exercises with treaty ally South Korea.
Light on specifics, the agreement largely amou-nted to continued discussions, as it echoed previous public statements and past commitments. It did not, for instance, inc-lude a pact to take steps toward ending the technical state of warfare betw-een the two nations.
