Singapore summit: Donald Trump says he does ‘trust’ Kim Jong-un to make good on denuclearisation pledge
AS his political opponents savage his deal with Kim Jong-un, Donald Trump has talked up the outcome of yesterday’s summit, saying it will mean an end to North Korea’s rocket launches.
Leaders
Don't miss out on the headlines from Leaders. Followed categories will be added to My News.
KIM Jong-un has committed to an immediate end to his rocket launches, nuclear testing and research, according to Donald Trump, who says North Korea faces a “glorious new era”.
In a series of tweets today, US President Trump hailed his “historic day” with the North Korean leader in Singapore yesterday.
“There is no limit to what North Korea can achieve when it gives up its nuclear weapons and embraces commerce & engagement with the world,” Trump wrote as he also posted pictures of him shaking hands with Mr Kim and signing their agreement.
“Chairman Kim has before him the opportunity to be remembered as the leader who ushered in a glorious new era of security & prosperity for his citizens!
MORE: Time will tell if Trump seals the deal
MORE: Trump’s ‘gorilla’ move overpowers Kim
MORE: What you missed during Trump-Kim summit
MORE: Trump and Kim’s private translators revealed
MORE: Who was who at Trump and Kim’s power table
MORE: World leaders react to Trump’s historic moment
“I want to thank Chairman Kim for taking the first bold step toward a bright new future for his people. Our unprecedented meeting — the first between an American President and a leader of North Korea — proves that real change is possible!
“The World has taken a big step back from potential Nuclear catastrophe! No more rocket launches, nuclear testing or research! The hostages are back home with their families. Thank you to Chairman Kim, our day together was historic!
“A year ago the pundits & talking heads, people that couldn’t do the job before, were begging for conciliation and peace - “please meet, don’t go to war.” Now that we meet and have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un, the same haters shout out, “you shouldn’t meet, do not meet!”
TRUMP’S CONCESSIONS FOR ‘VAGUE PROMISES’
President Trump’s deal with Chairman Kim has been savaged by his Democrat opponents, who labelled his move to appease the North Korean leadership as “embarassing”.
“In his haste to reach an agreement, President Trump elevated North Korea to the level of the United States while preserving the regime’s status quo,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said.
She said Mr Trump had given North Korea concessions in return for “vague promises” and that the summit had offered “no clear and comprehensive pathway to denuclearisation”.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer claimed the US had “legitimised a brutal dictator.”
“It is worrisome, very worrisome that this joint statement is so imprecise,” he said.
“What the US has gained is vague and unverifiable at best. What North Korea has gained, however, is tangible and lasting ... We’ve legitimized a brutal dictator who’s starved his own people.”
TRUMP SET TO VISIT NORTH KOREA
President Trump is set to visit North Korea in the wake of his historic summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore, reports say.
According to North Korean state media agency KCNA, the US President has accepted an invitation from the leader of the communist regime to visit his impoverished nation.
“Kim Jong-un invited Trump to visit Pyongyang at a convenient time and Trump invited Kim Jong-un to visit the US. The two top leaders gladly accepted each other’s invitation”, KCNA said.
No further information on the visit was immediately available from KCNA, and the White House and President Trump have not confirmed the visit.
The overture came after President Trump claimed he trusts Kim Jong-un and that the North Korean leader “trusts him” following the pair’s historic sit-down in Singapore.
Speaking on US TV hours after the summit, Mr Trump was asked by interviewer George Stephanopoulos how he could trust the dictator’s words.
“I do trust him, yeah,” Mr Trump said. “Maybe in a year you’ll be interviewing [me] and I’ll say I made a mistake. It’s possible. We’re dealing at a high level, a lot of things can change, a lot of things are possible.”
Mr Stephanopoulos pressed Mr Trump on North Korea’s human rights abuses including starving his people, running labour camps and assassinating members of his own family.
“George, I’m given what I’m given,” Mr Trump said.
“This is what we have, this is where we are, and I can only tell you from my experience, and I’ve met him, I’ve spoken with him. I’ve met him. And this is, this has started early and it’s been very intense.
“I think that he really wants to do a great job for North Korea. I think he wants to de-nuke, without that, there’s nothing to discuss. It was on the table from the beginning, and you see a total denuclearisation of North Korea — so important.”
Mr Trump also spoke about the agreements that were reached during the summit, saying that he believes the North Korean leader “wants to do the right thing”.
“We have the framework for getting ready to denuclearise,” Mr Trump said. “He’s de-nuking the whole place. I think he’s going to start now.”
Trump seemed to hold an optimistic take on Kim’s intentions, saying that the dictator “really wants to do something I think terrific for their country”.
AUSTRALIA WARNS TRUMP OVER KIM
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has praised President Trump’s “red-hot go” at achieving the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula but isn’t sure whether it will actually happen.
“We welcome the outcome of the summit in Singapore,” he said.
“We welcome it cautiously, naturally. There have been many disappointments along the road to denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. It clearly hasn’t occurred. And the President has to be given credit for having the determination, the courage to act in a way that’s very decisive.
“He has acted in a way that no president has done before. He has gone and seized the opportunity, had a meeting and spent a lot of time with Kim Jong-un.
“Will it result in the complete denuclearisation of the peninsula? Only time will tell, and the President has acknowledged that. But he is having a red-hot go at achieving denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula and you have to give him credit for that.”
Prime Minister Turnbull said Australia would “certainly make available specialists to engage in the verification process of the denuclearisation, the complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearisation, which is the objective of the summit and of the communique that was agreed to between Kim Jong-un and President Trump.”
Earlier, Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop said that while she’s optimistic about North Korea’s promises to denuclearise, Kim Jong-un’s history doesn’t fill her with confidence.
In an appearance on the Today Show this morning, Ms Bishop said yesterday’s meeting was momentous but the diplomatic work has only just begun.
“[It was] the first time we have seen a sitting US President meet with a North Korean leader and only a few months ago they were trading insults and now this kind of rapport that has been built between them,” she said.
“But if this means peace on the Korean Peninsula, if this means relief from the suffering of the people of North Korea, if this means ending the threat of a nuclear attack then it has all been worth it.”
When Today host Karl Stefanovic asked Ms Bishop if she trusted the North Korean leader, she replied that she’d never met him, “but his past record doesn’t fill one with a great deal of confidence”.
“It is a very brutal regime. The human rights situation in North Korea is appalling,” she said.
TRUMP’S ‘FAKE’ MOVIE TRAILER
President Trump, the former reality television star with a knack for theatrics, tried a dose of Hollywood drama as he sought to sway North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their historic summit.
Using an iPad, Mr Trump said he showed Kim a short video made on his behalf, laying out the opportunities that could come with an agreement to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear arsenal — a story about “two men, two leaders, one destiny.”
Reminiscent of a movie trailer, the film shows images of warplanes and artillery while a narrator suggests in English and Korean that “a new world can begin today, one of friendship, respect and goodwill.”
“We had it made up. I showed it to him today, actually during the meeting, toward the end of the meeting and I think he loved it,” Mr Trump said during a press conference. The video was broadcast on big screens at the start of Tuesday’s press conference.
Mr Trump said the video was played for about eight members of the North Korean delegation, “and I thought they were fascinated by it.”
The US President added: “That could very well be the future.”
TRUMP’S ‘WAR GAMES’ PLEDGE ROCKS PENTAGON
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s declaration at the Singapore Summit that he intended to halt joint military exercises with South Korea has taken South Korean and US military officials by surprise.
Current and former US defence officials expressed concern at the possibility that the United States would unilaterally halt military exercises without an explicit concession from North Korea lowering the threat from Pyongyang.
“I’m sort of stunned about how much we gave up and how little we got in return,” said one former official, saying the decision “borders on irresponsible” and would erode readiness and diminish the credibility of the US-South Korean alliance.
Mr Trump made the remarks at a press conference after his summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore, calling war games expensive and “provocative”, echoing a North Korean criticism that the United States had long rejected. Mr Trump also said he wants “at some point” to withdraw the American troops currently in South Korea.
“We will be stopping the war games which will save us a tremendous amount of money,” he said. “We have right now 32,000 soldiers in South Korea, and I’d like to be able to bring them back home. But that’s not part of the equation right now.”
The remains of prisoners of war from battles in the 1950-1953 Korean War will also be repatriated.
If implemented, the end of military exercises could be one of the most concrete and controversial moves to arise from Mr Trump’s summit with Mr Kim, who pledged to pursue denuclearisation but offered no details.
South Korea’s Presidential Blue House said it needed to “to find out the precise meaning or intentions” of Mr Trump’s statement, while adding that it was willing to “explore various measures to help the talks move forward more smoothly.”
OTTO’S PARENTS ‘APPRECIATE’ COMMENTS
Meanwhile, the parents of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who died after being released from a North Korean prison last year, have thanked Mr Trump for his kind words about their son.
Fred and Cindy Warmbier said in a statement overnight after Mr Trump met with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un that they appreciated the president’s comments.
They said they were hopeful that something positive could come from the summit. Earlier in Singapore, Mr Trump said that Otto Warmbier was a “very special person” and that his death had galvanised the administration’s determination to deal with North Korea. Mr Trump said Otto Warmbier had not “died in vain”.
“Otto Warmbier is a very special person,” Mr Trump said, when asked how he could defend praising Mr Kim despite his regime being responsible for the US student’s death.
“I think without it, this thing would not have happened,” Mr Trump said in a lengthy press conference.
MORE: Kim Jong-un brings ‘own toilet’ to summit
MORE: How Trump and Kim came to this extraordinary moment
MORE: What you missed at the Trump-Kim summit
“Something happened that day. It was terrible, it was brutal, but a lot of people started to focus on what was going on, including North Korea (after he died).
“I really think Otto was someone who did not die in vain.”
Mr Trump said that he had become good friends with Mr Warmbier’s parents, Fred and Cindy.
Warmbier was a student at University of Virginia who was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour. After suffering still unexplained brain injuries, he was released on June 13, 2017 and died six days later.
Mr Trump claimed a historic victory after the pair’s “epochal” summit in a secluded and luxurious Singapore hotel, saying the process of eradicating Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities would begin “very, very quickly”.
“A lot of goodwill went into this, a lot of work, a lot of preparation. We’re very proud of what took place today,” Mr Trump told reporters at a post-summit press conference.
“We are prepared to start a new history and we are ready to write a new chapter between our two nations.
“We have developed a very special bond.”
After earlier promising a “big prelude to peace”, Mr Kim hailed the success of the first meeting between a sitting US president and leader of North Korea.
“Today we have had a historic meeting, we decided to leave the past behind,” Mr Kim said through an interpreter.
“The world will see a major change. I would like to express my gratitude to President Trump for making this meeting happen.”
While the agreement lacked significant detail and a timeline, both countries agreed to “fully and expeditiously” advance towards denuclearisation.
Mr Trump also said the North Korean leader had verbally committed to the immediate destruction of a “major” missile testing site.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a senior North Korean official will “hold follow-on negotiations … at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes”, the agreement says.
The deal offers several concessions for Kim’s isolated and impoverished nation of 25 million, which has been crippled by harsh economic sanctions under Mr Trump’s “maximum pressure” strategy.
But Mr Trump said there will be no sanction relief until “down the road” when the US is convinced the process of denuclearisation is under way.
“It does take a long time to pull off a complete denuclearisation,” Mr Trump said.
“We will do it as fast as it can mechanically and physically be done. The sanctions will come off as soon as nukes are no longer a factor.”
‘LOVES HIS COUNTRY’
Mr Trump said the relationship between the world and North Korea was going to change in light of the agreement he had engineered.
“We are going to take care of a very big and very dangerous problem for the world,” he said.
“It’s a very great day. It’s a very great moment in the history of the world.”
After their meeting, Mr Trump said Mr Kim was “absolutely” invited to the White House and said that the leaders in the future would “meet many times”.
In comments which would have unimaginable months ago, Mr Trump was glowing in his praise of Mr Kim, saying he had a “great personality and (was) very smart: good combination”.
He also lauded his him as “a worthy negotiator … a very worthy, very smart negotiator”.
“We had a terrific day and we learned a lot about each other and our countries,” Mr Trump said.
“I learned that he’s a very talented man. I also learned that he loves his country very much.”
HOW THE MEETING UNFOLDED
The hastily arranged, on-off summit was convened in March to negotiate the easing of sanctions under America’s “maximum pressure” strategy in return for North Korea’s full denuclearisation.
Mr Kim, 34, arrived seven minutes before Mr Trump, 71, which Korean media described as a show of respect for the older man.
Beginning right on time at 9am (11am AEST) local time, the pair shared a 13-second handshake and spoke quietly before turning to face assembled cameras in front of a row of alternating American and North Korean flags.
They walked slowly along a portico of the Capella Hotel, before entering a room where they spoke alone for 38 minutes.
The initial encounter was cast as an opportunity for them to build a rapport ahead of the more detailed peace talks, with aides including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, and national security adviser John Bolton in the room.
Mr Kim’s delegation included his former chief spy, Kim Yong-chol, whose last-minute conciliatory approach to the White House contributed to Mr Trump rescheduling the summit after he had cancelled it.
Also at the table were North Korea’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Choe Son-hui, whose labelling of US Vice-President Mike Pence as “a dummy” had spurred Mr Trump’s abrupt cancellation of the summit last month. Mr Kim’s communist party boss sister, Kim Yo-jong, one of his closest confidantes, was also at the lunch.
After their initial meeting, Mr Kim said to Mr Trump through an interpreter: “Many people in the world will think of this as a form of fantasy … from a science fiction movie.”
The party shared a working lunch, where they dined on a menu of Singaporean, Korean and western dishes.
Later, Mr Trump and Mr Kim sat side-by-side at a wide wooden table decorated with white flowers, flanked on either side by American and North Korean flags, to sign the agreement.
Mr Trump’s place was marked by a heavy, black, personally monogrammed pen, while a North Korean official in rubber gloves appeared shortly before the signing to wipe down and inspect Mr Kim’s pen.
While the outcome was welcomed by allies including China and South Korea, the vague nature of the agreement drew some criticism.
“The reality TV-Star Trump just pulled off the photo-op of a lifetime,” said Beatrice Fihn, executive director of International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
“Rather than signing an unsubstantial agreement, Trump and Kim should be signing a real document based on international law, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”
Robert Kelly, a professor of political science at Pusan National University, said on social media the text was “even thinner than most skeptics (sic) anticipated”.
“Wow. If this is it … this is depressing,” he said.
Staggering salary of man unions don’t want
The eye-watering salary of the man tasked with reforming the embattled CFMEU can now be revealed, and it’s not costing taxpayers a cent.
‘Farce:’ Albo hits out at takeover blunder
The Prime Minister has labelled the forced federal Liberal Party takeover of its NSW branch as “a farce” and said the saga reeked of “incompetence”.