D-day is finally here.
The long awaited, first ever summit between the leaders of North Korea and the United
States is to take place later today in Singapore at the Capella Hotel.
With today's summit,... there are high hopes that the two sides can finally put an end
to the years of tensions and solve North Korea's nuclear issue.
Will North Korea denuclearize, and will the U.S. guarantee security for the North?
We'll soon find out.
For more on this, our Lee Ji-won, who is part of Arirang's special Singapore Summit Coverage
Team is out there in the city state for us.
Ji-won, do we know anything of the summit schedule?
Mark, in about an hour, the historic summit will take place, right here in Singapore's
Capella Hotel in the country's southern island of Sentosa.
And with the summit venue about 20 minutes away from where the leaders are staying, they
are expected to leave anytime within the next hour.
Now, to tell you more about today's summit, the two leaders,... after their initial greeting,
will start off with a one-on-one meeting, with only the translators with them, according
to the White House.
This will give the two leaders an opportunity to exchange their deep opinions, in their
very first meeting.
This could be seen as Trump's effort to test Kim's sincerity, as Trump had said that he
will know "within the first minute" if Kim is serious about giving up his nuclear arsenal
and whether "something positive will happen."
The private talk will then be followed by an expanded bilateral meeting and then a working
lunch.
The U.S. delegates for the expanded meeting will include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,
Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Advisor John Bolton.
Now, mind you, Bolton, a hardliner on Pyongyang, had infuriated North Korea a few weeks ago
by pushing the so-called 'Libya model' on North Korea,... where the North is asked to
give up all its nuclear weapons first.
So I think Kim Jong-un and his delegates' exchanges or responses to Bolton will be something
interesting to look out for.
And for the working lunch, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and Ambassador Sung Kim, a former
nuclear negotiator who had been at the forefront of working level talks with the North until
the very last day,... will be joining Trump and Kim.
And when the summit finishes, President Trump is to hold a press briefing before returning
to the U.S. at around 8 in the evening.
While many of the plans and details on the U.S. side have been shared through the White
House Press Secretary's Office,... not much is known on North Korea.
But watchers say that Kim Yong-chol, Vice Chairman of North Korea's Ruling Workers'
Party's Central Committee,... and the North Korean leaders' younger sister Kim Yo-jong
will certainly be among those accompanying Kim in the extended meeting.
Kim, according to Reuters, is scheduled to fly back to Pyongyang at 2 in the afternoon,...
that is just five hours after the start of his summit with his U.S. counterpart.
Now according to Bloomberg, citing a U.S. official, President Trump was willing to stay
longer in Singapore depending on how the summit goes.
But they say the revelation of Kim Jong-un's surprisingly early departure also prompted
Trump to schedule his flight earlier.
So what do you think will be the main watch point for today's summit?
The main deal for today's summit is whether Kim Jong-un will comply with the U.S. request
of complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization or CVID,... and in exchange, will Trump give
a complete, verifiable, irreversible guarantee of security, or CVIG to Kim and his regime.
Now, the working level delegations of Sung Kim and North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister
Choe Son-hui who had been negotiating over at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom
a number of times,... met again a couple more times in Singapore on Monday.
The two sides were negotiating until late last night,... heading back to their hotels
at around 10 p.m. local time.
According to inside sources,... the discussions seem to have hinged on the notion of North
Korea's CVID.
Unnamed sources say the U.S. seeks to get a commitment from the North to CVID in writing,...
but Pyongyang is protesting strongly against the phrase,... because it sees it as portraying
the regime as a defeated country.
And with North Korea asking for CVIG, we will have to see if the U.S will come to some kind
of an agreement with the North.
And do we have some kind of response from the U.S.? Were we able to see these kinds
of unresolved issues in Pompeo's press briefing yesterday?
Well Mark, Trump just tweeted early this morning that meetings between representatives are
going well and quickly but that THAT doesn't matter and they will soon find out whether
a real deal will be reached, unlike those of the past.
Now, Pompeo also said yesterday that the talks ARE progressing fast, but he also emphasized
on what the North will accept and what it will not.
Have a listen.
"The ultimate objective we seek from diplomacy with North Korea has not changed -- complete,
verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the only outcome
that the United States will accept."
Now, of the different parts of CVID, Pompeo emphasized the importance of verification.
He said that "the "V" matters" and that it's only after the V happens that they will be
able to fully proceed.
He added that the U.S. will ensure it sets up a system sufficiently robust to be able
to verify these outcomes.
That's all we have from Singapore as of now Mark.