US-North Korea Summit: Singapore PM To Meet Kim Jong Un, Trump Separately

The countdown has begun in Singapore with less than 48 hours left for the historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as the world watches intently. Both the leaders will reach Singapore on Sunday for the summit to be held Tuesday and will have separate meetings with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

According to a release from Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the prime minister will meet Kim and Trump separately on Sunday and Monday respectively.

The White House said President Trump will arrive at Singapore’s Paya Lebar Airbase at 8:35 p.m. local time (8: 35 a.m. EDT) in Air Force One aircraft and will head to the Shangri-La Hotel. His delegation includes Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, Reuters reported. Prominent faces who will be absent include first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary James Mattis, who recently visited Singapore.

Trump on Saturday skipped several sessions at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Canada to head early for Singapore. Enroute to the South East Asian nation, he tweeted saying he hoped the much-anticipated summit will “achieve a truly wonderful result for North Korea and the World.”

“It will certainly be an exciting day and I know that Kim Jong Un will work very hard to do something that has rarely been done before...” he said and added it would help “Create peace and great prosperity for his land. I look forward to meeting him and have a feeling that this one-time opportunity will not be wasted!”

Kim’s private jet Il-62, which departed from Pyongyang at 8:30 local time (7:30 p.m. EDT Saturday), is expected to land at Changi airport on Sunday afternoon, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported. Ahead of his arrival, a team of North Korean delegates arrived in Singapore on Saturday evening to take stock of security arrangements. They inspected arrangements at the St Regis Singapore hotel on Tanglin Road, where Kim would stay. According to a diplomatic source, the hotel was selected because of a “smaller security risk exposure.”

The historic summit, which could be a turning point in U.S.-North Korea relations, will start at 9:00 local time on Tuesday (9 p.m. EDT Monday) at the Capella Hotel on Singapore’s Sentosa Island, where the two leaders would discuss various issues including denuclearization and sanctions relief.

The POTUS had earlier described the summit as a "mission of peace.”

“It’s unknown territory in the truest sense but I really feel confident,” he said. “I feel that Kim Jong Un wants to do something great for his people and he has that opportunity ... It’s a one-time shot.”

Trump, on Saturday, said he would know whether the summit is heading in the right direction “in first minute” itself.

“Just my touch, my feel, that’s what I do,” he said. “How long will it take to figure out if they’re serious? You know, the way they say you know if you’re going to like somebody in the first five seconds, you ever hear that one? I think very quickly I’ll know whether or not something good is going to happen.”

This will be the first meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting U.S. president. The run-up to the summit saw a lot of hurdles, with, at one point, Trump abruptly canceling the summit citing the reclusive nation’s "open hostility." But, after senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol held discussions with Pompeo in Washington late last month, Trump changed his decision.