Meeting with Trump will be positive for Koreas, says Kim Jong- un

WASHINGTON(TIP): US President Donald Trump today, May 10, announced that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore for a historic meeting to discuss denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Trump’s announcement came hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned home from North Korea with three detained Americans.

Trump, who personally greeted the trio at the Andrews Air Force Base, praised Kim for their release ahead of their summit.

“The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!,” Trump tweeted.

Trump has struck a cautiously optimistic tone in discussing the prospects of reaching a deal during his upcoming summit with Kim, saying he is hopeful a historic agreement can be brokered while also warning the talks could prove unfruitful.

But the President saw the release of the three Americans as yet another reason for optimism as he prepares for the summit. “We are starting off on a new footing-I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful. A lot of very good things have happened,” Trump said as he greeted the three former prisoners.

The Americans-Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim-were freed yesterday by North Korea while Pompeo was on a visit to Pyongyang to finalize the details of the Trump-Kim summit.

The summit, which has been in the works since Trump accepted Kim’s invitation to meet in March, will be the first ever meeting between a sitting US president and North Korean leader.

US officials had also considered holding the summit at the Korean demilitarized zone or in Mongolia, but ultimately settled on the city-state of Singapore as the location.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong-un has said that the meeting with Trump will be positive towards easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Pyongyang state media reported on Thursday, May 10.

Kim made the remark to visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, May 9 the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

During the meeting with Pompeo, Kim described the planned summit as “historic” and “the excellent first step towards promotion of the positive situation development in the Korean peninsula and building of a good future”.

This was Pompeo’s second visit to the Asian country after his secret trip over Easter, when he also met with Kim, to finalize preparations for the summit, reports Efe news.

“At the meeting, an in-depth discussion was made on the practical matters for holding the North Korea-US summit and its procedure and ways. Kim Jong-un reached a satisfactory consensus on the issues discussed with the US state secretary,” Yonhap News Agency quoted KCNA as saying.

This is the first time that the North Korean leader officially spoke of the meeting with Trump, which has been scheduled for the end of May or the beginning of June and will be the first meeting in history between the heads of government of the two countries.

KCNA said Kim also “accepted an official suggestion of the US President for the release of Americans who have been detained” and gave an order “on granting amnesty to them for their repatriation”.

The three Americans–Kim Dong-chul, 64, Kim Sang-duk, 58, and Kim Hak-song, around 60–who had been held prisoners in North Korea, were all born in South Korea but later acquired the US citizenship.

Pompeo also delivered Kim a “verbal message” from Trump, adding Kim highly appreciated that the US President had shown “deep interest in settling the issue through dialogue”.

Details of Trump’s message were not disclosed.

The North’s media covered Wednesday’s meeting extensively.

The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, devoted the front page to the Kim-Pompeo meeting, with relevant photos, including those showing the two shaking hands.

(Source: PTI / IANS)