Trump and Kim Meet in Historic Summit

President Donald Trump shook hands with North Korea’s young dictator, Kim Jong Un, on Tuesday during the first summit meeting between their nations, which ended with promises from both sides to work toward peace.

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

The meeting was a momentous step in the relationship between the world’s largest nuclear power and the most reclusive one. But complex negotiations will be necessary to turn their promises into reality, and success is far from certain.

Brash, impulsive leaders who only a few months ago taunted each other with the threat of using nuclear weapons, Trump and Kim set aside their threats in a gamble that for now, at least, personal diplomacy can counteract decades of hostility and distrust.

The two leaders met alone except for their interpreters at a Singapore resort. It was a negotiation unlike any other. Two headstrong men—one 34 years old, the other 71, both products of wealth and privilege, but with lives so dissimilar they were practically from different planets—coming together to search for a deal that eluded their predecessors for decades.

The summit meeting represented a turnaround that would have been inconceivable just a few months ago, when the two leaders had traded insults and threats of a nuclear conflict that rattled the entire world. In the last year alone, Kim has conducted his nation’s most powerful nuclear test and developed missiles capable of striking American cities. Trump responded last August by threatening to unleash “fire and fury like the world has never seen.” 

Then, in January, there was a sudden change in tone. Kim offered to send athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea—the first act in a public relations makeover. Just a few months later, Kim invited Trump to meet with him.

South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, who worked intensely to help broker the meeting between Trump and Kim, underlined the summit’s historic nature.

Moon said that the agreement would be just the beginning of what could be a long, bumpy process of ridding North Korea of a nuclear arsenal it has spent decades building.

“Even after the two heads of state open the gate,” Moon said, “it will take a long process to achieve a complete solution. We don’t know how long it will take: one year, two years, or more.”

With reporting by Mark Lander of The New York Times

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What did each side agree to at the meeting in Singapore?

2. What were relations like between the U.S. and North Korea six months ago?

3. How did President Trump describe the joint military exercises with South Korea?

4. What role did South Korea play in setting up the meeting?

5. What challenges remain after the summit?