President Donald Trump announced that his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place in Singapore on June 12.
“The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!”
The president’s announcement came hours after three Americans who were imprisoned in North Korea returned to the United States accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump met the freed detainees in person at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland at 2 a.m. on Thursday.
The release of the detainees was the latest in a series of major concessions by Kim Jong Un ahead of the meeting. The communist leader has already committed to complete denuclearization and peace with South Korea during the meeting with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in last month.
“This is a great honor. Hopefully, everything is going to work out at the highest level,” Trump said after meeting the detainees on the tarmac. “We want to thank Kim Jong Un, who really was excellent to these three incredible people.”
Asked if the release of the detainees would be his proudest moment, Trump said that complete denuclearization would top his list.
“My proudest achievement will be—this is a part of it—but will be when we denuclearize that entire peninsula,” Trump said. “This is what people have been waiting for a long time. Nobody thought we could be on this track in terms of speed.”
The announcement also comes on the heels of Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. The president has long criticized the arrangement as a failure.
Friends Read Free