Trump and Kim See New Chapter for Nations After Summit

By MARK LANDLER
© 2018 New York Times News Service

SINGAPORE — President Donald Trump shook hands with Kim Jong Un of North Korea on Tuesday and offered a major concession during the first summit meeting between their nations, a momentous step in an improbable courtship between the world’s largest nuclear power and the most reclusive one.

Emerging from a day of talks in Singapore and speaking to reporters for more than an hour, Trump said that he was suspending joint military exercises with South Korean forces and that he was confident Kim would begin dismantling his nuclear arsenal “very quickly.”

But Trump said economic sanctions against the North would remain in place until the North did more.

Trump’s decision to suspend the war games — which he described as “very provocative” given the continuing negotiations but also “very expensive” — appeared to take South Korea by surprise.

“We’re very proud of what took place today,” Trump said. “I think our whole relationship with North Korea and the Korean Peninsula is going to be a very much different situation than it has in the past.”

In a televised ceremony in which the two leaders signed a joint statement, Kim thanked Trump for making their face-to-face talks possible. “We had a historic meeting and decided to leave the past behind,” he said, adding that “the world will see a major change.”

In the statement they signed, Trump “committed to provide security guarantees” to North Korea and Kim “reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

But the statement did not go much further than previous ones by North Korea and was short on details, including any timetable or verification measures.

Asked if Kim had agreed to denuclearize, Trump said, “We’re starting that process very quickly — very, very quickly — absolutely.”

The joint statement said the two nations would hold “follow-on negotiations” led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a high-level North Korean official “at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes” of the summit meeting.

It also said the two countries would “join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime” on the divided peninsula, meaning talks to reduce military tensions that could eventually lead to a formal peace treaty to end the Korean War.