SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is expected to arrive in Singapore on Sunday, two days ahead of the historic talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Kim is expected to fly into Singapore’s Changi airport. The two leaders are expected to discuss how to get rid of North Korea’s nuclear weapons in exchange for diplomatic and economic incentives from the United States.
In Pyongyang, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho met with his Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan, and they exchanged in-depth views on further developing bilateral relations between the two countries ahead of the North Korea-U.S. summit.
Relevant pieces published earlier:
i) North Korea promised to close its atomic test site next month and invite US weapons experts to the country, Seoul stated today, as Donald Trump expressed optimism about securing a nuclear deal in his summit with the secretive regime. The reported pledge from the North’s leader Kim Jong Un follows weeks of whirlwind diplomacy that saw Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agree to pursue the complete denuclearization of the peninsula during a historic summit on Friday. “Kim said, during the summit with President Moon, that he would carry out the closing of the nuclear test site in May,” Seoul’s presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan said.
Kim said he “would soon invite experts of South Korea and the US as well as journalists to disclose the process to the international community with transparency”, Yoon added. Tensions spiked last year over the North’s testing of atomic weapons and long-range missiles, including some capable of reaching the US mainland. “Kim said ‘the US feels repelled by us, but once we talk, they will realize that I am not a person who will fire a nuclear weapon to the South or the US or target the US,” according to Yoon. (29th April 2018)
ii) North Korean Supreme leader Kim Jong Un has stated here today that he would halt nuclear tests and intercontinental missile launches. Kim Jong Un maintained since North Korea had successfully developed its arsenal, including miniaturizing warheads to fit them on to missiles, “no nuclear test and intermediate-range and inter-continental ballistic rocket test-fire are necessary for the DPRK now”. He told the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party that North’s nuclear testing site was no longer needed, and the Party had decided that nuclear blasts and ICBM launches would cease from today (21st day of April). Kim Jong Un ’s proclamation has been welcomed by President Trump who is scheduled to meet him shortly. However, it is pertinent to mention here that Pyongyang has not given any indication that it would give up its nuclear arsenal that has the ability to reach USA. (21st April 2018)
