Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump arrived in the city-state of Singapore for talks about North Korea's nuclear arsenal, the first time a North Korean leader has held a summit with a sitting US president.
Mr Trump and Mr Kim are scheduled to meet at the Capella hotel on the tourist destination island of Sentosa on Tuesday to try to reach a deal on dismantling the North’s nuclear weapons programme in exchange for security guarantees.
Mr Trump has said he will know “within a minute” of meeting Mr Kim whether the summit will work out.
Mr Kim arrived at Changi airport in an Air China plane from Pyongyang, while Mr Trump touched down at Paya Lebar airbase from Canada after attending the Group of Seven leaders' meeting. During the G7 meeting, Mr Trump fell out with other world leaders over tariffs.
Mr Trump stuck an optimistic note in tweets ahead of the meeting.
“It will certainly be an exciting day and I know that Kim Jong-un will work very hard to do something that has rarely been done before,” he wrote.
Chinese president
Mr Kim was met by Singapore's foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan on arrival, and then whisked off to the St Regis hotel.
Mr Kim flew on an Air China Boeing 747 plane, used by Chinese officials for state visits, for safety reasons, observers said. Mr Kim has had two meetings with Chinese president Xi Jinping in recent weeks and China is a major ally of the isolated Stalinist state.
Both Mr Kim and Mr Trump are due to meet Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien-loon at the Istana palace during their visit.
Security is tight in Singapore, and there is great excitement about the visit. Mr Kim has been characterised as “Mr Cute Fat Guy” by local Singaporeans, and people on the streets are describing the meeting as between “McDonald’s” (the restaurant chain) and “Kimchi” (the famous Korean pickle).
Their relationship has been a rollercoaster ride over the past 18 months, heightened by North Korea’s nuclear test in September 2017, after which the North Koreans said they had missiles that could reach the US.
During his first year in office, Mr Trump engaged in bitter verbal exchanges with Mr Kim over North Korea’s ballistic missile launches and nuclear tests, swapping insults and making alarming threats about nuclear prowess.
Improve relations
During the Winter Olympics in South Korea's Pyeongchang in early 2018, Mr Kim made approaches to South Korea to improve relations, and he held a landmark summit with South Korean president Moon Jae-in last month in Panmunjom at the demilitarised zone (DMZ).
The summit due to take place on Tuesday was announced, but Mr Trump then cancelled it because of perceived ill-will from the North Koreans, but then it was back on again after the North Koreans sent envoys to Washington to sort out details.
Travelling with Mr Trump on Air Force One are secretary of state Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton, White House chief of staff John Kelly and press secretary Sarah Sanders.
Mr Trump has described the meeting as a “one-off chance” and a “mission of peace” but said both leaders were in “unknown territory in the truest sense”.
