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, the summit will take place at 9 a.m., local time so that is 3 hours from now.
We do not yet know when the two leaders will leave their hotels, located in downtown Singapore,...
but with the summit venue located around 20 minutes away,... it's expected that Kim and
Trump will leave sometime after 8 a.m.
Now, what's interesting is that this summit,... after an initial greeting, will start off
with Kim and Trump's one-on-one meeting, with only the translators with them, according
to the White House.
On their first meeting, the two leaders will be able to share their deep opinions.
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.
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
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.
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.
And many of us are cautiously optimistic, as the Secretary of State also said yesterday
the talks are progressing fast.
But Pompeo also at the same time, pressed the North on what the U.S. 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."
And he also warned that sanctions will remain and even increase if the North does not completely
and verifiably eliminate its weapons of mass destruction programs.
That's the latest we have on the content of today's negotiation.
Now, coming back to today's schedule,... it's still quite early but many reporters are already
standing by near the hotels of the two leaders.
We will now connect to our Oh Jung-hee, for more on what it's like at the site.
Jung-hee, where exactly are you and what's the atmosphere there like?
That's all
we have from Singapore as of now Mark, but
we
will be coming back with more updates throughout the whole day.