President Trump and Kim Jong Un Are Preparing to Finally Meet. Here's What to Know About Their Singapore Summit

After much speculation, President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a historic summit in Singapore on June 12. It will mark the first time that a North Korean leader has met with a sitting U.S. president; remarkable as the two countries have no diplomatic relations and are officially still at war.

With North Korea’s self described “complete” nuclear arsenal, and a history of tensely traded threats with the U.S., the stakes are dizzyingly high. Here’s a look at what to expect from the summit.
Where and when is the summit taking place?

The hotly anticipated summit is set to take place at the Capella Hotel on Singapore’s Sentosa Island, with the first meeting kicking off at 9a.m. local time on June 12. The hotel is a secluded luxury resort on the island with two presidential suites, one of which is a standalone property that could be prime for hosting the high level talks.

Located off the southern coast of Singapore, Sentosa is home to other high-end hotels, beaches and amusement parks including Universal Studios Singapore. Its separation from the city centre may have been a factor in its selection as the summit location.

Singapore will be the furthest distance Kim Jong Un has travelled since assuming leadership of North Korea in 2011. While the first meeting time and date has been announced, other details of the summit’s schedule have not yet been made clear.

Who will attend the summit?

Trump and Kim will bring their own delegations to the summit. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who travelled to North Korea twice earlier this year to negotiate and finalize the summit, Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Adviser John Bolton are expected to comprise Trump’s team, along with other senior White House officials.

Absent from Trump’s delegation are First Lady Melania Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who will both remain in the U.S., and Defense Secretary James Mattis, who recently visited Singapore.

It is not yet clear who will be joining Kim Jong Un in South Korea, although several of his inner circle have been involved in the negotiating efforts over the past months. Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong attended the PyeongChang Winter Olympics with an invitation for Moon Jae-in that paved the way for inter-Korea talks at the end of April. Kim Yong Chol, often regarded as Kim Jong Un’s right-hand man, has played a pivotal role representing North Korea in negotiations leading up to the summit. Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho could also be expected to join the North’s delegation.

Have negotiations to arrange the summit been easy?

In the words of James Mattis, it has been a “bumpy road” to say the least. After the first meeting between Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae In in April, South Korea announced the North’s intention to meet with the U.S. by the end of May. Trump then made a surprise announcement on Twitter on May 10 that the summit would take place in Singapore on 12 June.
However, the summit appeared to hit a roadblock two weeks later, when Trump called off the summit in a letter to Kim Jong Un on May 24. “Sadly, based on the tremendous anger displayed in your most recent statement,” Trump wrote to Kim, “I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting.” The abrupt announcement came after North Korea made its anger known at Mike Pence’s comments comparing the country’s nuclear disarmament to the Libya example on Fox News.

One week after the cancellation, in another rollercoaster turn, Trump announced that the summit was back on track following negotiations between top level officials on both sides, and after Kim Yong Chol delivered a personal letter from Kim Jong Un to Trump.

What will Trump and Kim talk about?

At this stage, many details of the summit remain unclear, including the discussion agenda and schedule. It may be the case that the Singapore summit will serve mainly as a meet-and-greet for both leaders to make introductions, as the two countries currently have no formal diplomatic relations and the North remains under steep sanctions from the U.S. and the U.N.

Observers have warned against prematurely heralding the summit as a turning point of U.S.-North Korean relations and denuclearization on the peninsula, as North Korea will not easily give up its nuclear deterrent. Reports in recent days have suggested that should the meeting go well in Singapore, Trump may consider inviting Kim to the U.S. for follow up talks.

What do Trump and Kim want from the summit?

The U.S. has stressed that it wants to see steps toward complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea before sanctions relief can be implemented, although Trump has signaled some flexibility. Skepticism remains over whether Kim is truly committed to achieving this aim, and difficulties may lie in how both the U.S. and North Korea define denuclearization. North Korean officials have made no secret of their displeasure at a total and immediate effort to destroy weapons on the peninsula, and are said to favor a step-by-step approach. The demolition of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site last month was seen as a positive gesture prior to the summit, but it is not an irreversible one and further measures would have to be taken to satisfy U.S. demands.

Despite this, some steps taken by Kim prior to the summit indicate a legitimate willingness to talk to the U.S., and could point to a genuine ambition to strike some kind of deal, most likely focused on economic development. A series of personnel reshuffles in the North’s military circles prior to the summit, as well as the regime’s reported enthusiasm for American investment, may comprise Kim’s strategy for lifting the nation out of poverty. However, whether Trump and Kim will even reach the stage of discussing a potential denuclearization deal at this summit in Singapore remains to be seen.