A combination of two file photos shows US President Donald Trump, left, in Cleveland, Ohio, May 5, 2018, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, in Panmunjom, South Korea, April 27, 2018. (AP Photo/File)
United States President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are set to engage in a historic summit between the two countries scheduled to take place on a secluded Singaporean island. The first meeting between an American and a North Korean head of state in more than 60 years, the summit is being watched closely by people across the world as the coming together of two ends of a pole. Find answers to all your questions regarding the historic summit here:
Q. Where will the meeting be held?
The meeting is being held at the Capella Hotel, a secluded luxury resort on Singapore’s Sentosa Island located just off the mainland.
Q. Why Singapore?
Singapore is one of the few countries which shares cordial relations with both United States and North Korea. The other few options were China, South Korea and Russia, although the latter would have been a long shot, what with the US imposing sanctions on trade with Moscow.
Q When is the meeting?
Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un are supposed to meet on Tuesday, June 12, at the Capella Hotel.
In this May 31, 2018, photo, a peacock walks on a terrace at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island in Singapore. US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet at the luxury resort for nuclear talks next week in Singapore. (Minoru Iwasaki/Kyodo News via AP)
Q. What time does it start?
The meeting is scheduled to start at 9 am (Singaporean time) or 6:30 am (Indian Standard Time). In local time at US East Coast, the meeting would be at 9 pm on Monday, June 11.
Q. What is on the agenda?
While is it not news that North Korea’s denuclearisation is likely to be the main agenda, Trump had last week said that the entire process of etching out a nuclear deal would take more than a single meeting.
While no agenda has been officially announced, it is being speculated that bilateral relations between the two nations might also come up, as the US, as well as the United Nations, has put additional sanctions on North Korea in recent times following Kim Jong Un’s repeated missile tests.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un shakes hands with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Istana in Singapore June 10, 2018. REUTERS/Edgar Su
Q. When did they arrive?
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un landed at Singapore’s Changi Airport amid heavy security on Sunday morning where he was greeted by Singapore’s foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan. Kim flew down in a plane loaned by China, one of the few major allies of North Korea.
Shortly afterwards, Donald Trump arrived in his official charter, the Air Force One, landing at the Paya Lebar Air Base in Singapore. He flew there directly from the recently concluded G7 summit in Canada.
Q. Are Trump and Kim staying at the same hotel?
No. While Donald Trump has been put up at the Shangri-La Hotel, Kim Jong Un is staying at the St. Regis Singapore.
Q. First activity after arrival?
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met both North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and United States’ Donald Trump separately at the Istana or the presidential palace in Singapore on Sunday.
Q. What’s in it for Singapore?
Although Singapore had not asked for the summit to be held at its shores, the city-nation’s PM said that Singapore was asked and it agreed. This summit, which will cost the island nation 20 million Singaporean dollars, with security costs taking up half of that estimate, is likely to be a boost to local tourism industry what with the extensive coverage local places are currently receiving. As the world turns its eyes towards Sentosa Island’s Capella Hotel, the resort, with a Universal Studios theme park and man-made beaches, has already been immortalised for hosting the historic summit.
Q. What to expect from the summit?
People the world over are waiting with baited breath for visuals of the first handshake between Donald Trump and Kim Jon Un after months of nuclear standoff and strained ties.
Technically, North Korea has been at war with the United States longer than any other country in American history – since the 1950-53 war between North and South Korea. Although then US President Jimmy Carter planned to visit North Korea in 1994, talks could not take place as then N Korean leader Kim Il Sung died of a heart attack. This summit marks the thawing of ties and the hope that North Korea may let go of at least some of its armaments.
The summit, which is scheduled to open with a one-on-one meeting between Kim and Trump at the secluded resort before the conclave begins, will hopefully result in opening up the secretive nation of North Korea to the outside world, with new trade relations, easing of sanctions, armed allies and chances of the two world leaders extending invitations for visits to Washington and Pyongyang sometime in the future.