President Trump on Monday said he believes that “things can work out very nicely” with North Korea ahead of his historic summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore, Fox News informed.
Trump voiced his high optimism about Tuesday’s meeting while he was on a working lunch with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
At the lunch, he also informed Lee that the decision to hold the summit in the island city-state of Singapore was “made very consciously” and offered his thanks.
“We appreciate your hospitality and professionalism and your friendship,” Trump told Lee.
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told the reporters that the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, who has taken the lead on policy negotiations with the North, will organize a working group with a North Korean delegation at 10 a.m. local time on Monday to make final preparations for the confab.
“Great to be in Singapore, excitement in the air!” Trump said in a tweet early Monday.
North Korean leader also had his own meeting with Lee earlier Sunday after landing in Singapore hours before Trump, who arrived after a contentious G7 summit.
“The entire world is watching the historic summit between (North Korea) and the United States of America, and thanks to your sincere efforts … we were able to complete the preparations for the historic summit,” Kim said to Lee through an interpreter.
Kim’s every move will be followed by some 3,000 journalists who have converged on Singapore, and by people around the world, up until he shakes hands with Trump on Tuesday. It’s a reflection of the intense global curiosity over Kim’s sudden turn to diplomacy in recent months after a slew of North Korean nuclear and missile tests last year raised serious fears of war.
Part of the interest in Tuesday’s summit is simply because Kim has had limited appearances on the world stage. He has only publicly left his country three times since taking power after his father’s death in late 2011 — traveling twice to China and once across his shared border with the South to the southern part of the Demilitarized Zone in recent summits with the leaders of China and South Korea, respectively.
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