Trump and Kim first meeting venue is set in Singapore

FILE - This combination of photos shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on April 15, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on April 29, 2017. The notion of a substantive sit-down between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump – the most gazed-upon figures of this moment in the planet's history – is a staggering prospect and a potential logistical nightmare if the two countries ever tried to make it happen. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Files)

by Charlotte Lee 

White house press secretary Sarah Sanders announced on Twitter that President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be meeting for the first time on June 12 at the Capella Hotel in Sentosa, Singapore.

 

Trump originally called off the summit on May 24, based on Kim’s “tremendous anger and open hostility,” but just recently decided to call it back on earlier this week. US officials have had to rush to make the logistical arrangements necessary for the meeting.

The discussion agenda has yet to be fully hashed out— Trump describes the meeting as a “getting-to-know-you, plus.” However, US Senate democrats demanded that Trump push aggressively for denuclearization by dismantling “every single one of North Korea’s nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.”

White arches line outside the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island in Singapore Tuesday, June 5, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet at the luxury resort for nuclear talks next week in Singapore, the White House said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Yong Teck Lim)

North Korea has agreed to disarm multiple times, but has never followed through before. Even if North Korea accepts, denuclearization will be a lengthy process. The deal will likely be further complicated by the concessions that North Korea seeks in return for disarmament.

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press after meeting with Kim Yong Chol, former North Korean military intelligence chief and one of leader Kim Jong Un’s closest aides, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Friday, June 1, 2018. Credit: Olivier Douliery / Pool via CNP | usage worldwide Photo by: Olivier Douliery/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

Trump expressed optimism regarding the relationship between the two leaders. “I think you’re going to have a very positive result in the end. We will see what we will see.”

An official meeting with the US president grants North Korea respect and acknowledgement that many nations dream of, especially since North Korea is still technically at war with South Korea and the United States.

According to a South Korean diplomatic source, as South Korean President Moon Jae-in will also be attending the summit, preparations have begun for the three leaders to declare an formal end to the 68 year long Korean War. Since his meeting with Kim Jong Un, President Moon has been “hoping to push for a declaration to end the war through a trilateral meeting should the North-U.S. summit become successful.” Trump agreed that ending the Korean War would be “very important”. This summit also holds heavy importance for Kim; the overseas trip to Singapore will be the farthest that he has traveled since coming into power in 2011.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center left, wife Ri Sol Ju, left, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, center right, and his wife Kim Jung-sook pose for a photo before a dinner banquet at Peace House of the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea, Friday, April 27, 2018. (Korea Summit Press Pool via AP)

The agenda of the summit remains unsettled. Nonetheless, seemingly negligible details that hold heavy political importance such as who walks in first and where to sit are being planned under careful consideration. Despite all the uncertainty, one thing is for sure: the Trump and Kim’s first ever meeting will be subject to critical media scrutiny.