Trump and Kim sign agreement following historic meeting in Singapore
June 12, 2018 11:51 am
President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a signing ceremony Tuesday that Trump said would “absolutely” lead to the denuclearization of North Korea — “very quickly.”
“We had a historic meeting and decided to leave the past behind and sign a historic document,” Kim said through a translator. “The world will see a major change.”
Neither Trump nor Kim provided details on the agreement follow a half-day of meetings centered around U.S. efforts to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.
“The letter that we’re signing is very comprehensive and I think both sides are going to be very impressed with the result,” Trump said.
The summit was historic in and of itself: the first-ever meeting between an American president and his North Korean counterpart.
The first in a series of dramatic moments came as Trump and Kim shook hands Tuesday morning.
As the two men approached each other on a colonnade at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island here, with American and North Korean flags interspersed behind them, reporters could hear Kim or his interpreter say, “Nice to meet you, Mr. President.”
Then, they posed for photographs, stern-faced, before making their way to a meeting room where they spoke briefly to the media.
“We will have a terrific relationship,” Trump said. “I have no doubt.”
Kim noted the nascent relationship already has survived serious obstacles — this meeting was planned, canceled and put back on the calendar — in getting to the point where the leaders could talk with each other in person.
“It was not easy to get here,” but the two sides “overcame” obstacles, the North Korean leader said through a translator.
“That’s true,” Trump replied.
That first meeting lasted about 45 minutes. Trump said afterward that their relationship was “very, very good” and “excellent.”
Source: NBC News
-Agencies
