‘We’re ready to write a new chapter between our two nations’: Trump declares victory and boasts Kim Jong-un signed a ‘very comprehensive’ agreement for ‘complete denuclearization’ after nearly 5 HOURS of meetings
Donald Trump told reporters in Singapore that he expects Kim Jong-un to uphold his part of a landmark agreement that requires him to destroy his entire nuclear weapons and missile programs
Trump said he addressed human rights with the North Korean dictator and said economic sanctions will remain as long as Pyongyang is a major abuser
Sanctions relief also depends on Kim’s follow-through on denuclearization
‘Our eyes are wide open, but peace is always worth the effort, especially in this case,’ Trump declared, saying he had been up for more than 25 hours to oversee the negotiations
Trump said joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises will end and called them ‘provocative’ to the North, but hs spun that decision as an economic one, not as a negotiated concession
The press conference began with the playing of a video, first in Korean and then in English, that Trump said his delegation showed Kim on an iPad to encourage him to choose the right path
Trump said he spotted inviting-looking beaches in the footage, and said: ‘Look at that beach, wouldn’t that make a great condo? … Think of it from a real estate perspective!’
Trump called Kim’s stockpile ‘a very substantial arsenal’ but predicted he would be tearing it up
He said ‘we’re much further along than I would have thought,’ and projected a time when the two nations have exchanged ambassadors and he has personally visited Pyongyang and invited Kim to the White House
By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS
DAILYMAIL.COM
12 June 2018
Kim Jong-un affirmed an ‘unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula’ in a signed document on Tuesday, President Donald Trump says.
‘We’re prepared to start a new history, and we’re ready to write a new chapter between our two nations,’ he told a packed room of reporters at a press conference in Singapore.
Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program will come to an end, he predicted, claiming that Kim had already left Singapore and was ‘on his way back’ to North Korea to begin implementing their joint vows.
‘I believe he’s going to live up to that document,’ Trump said after a day that included nearly 5 hours of face time with Kim. ‘Our eyes are wide open, but peace is always worth the effort, especially in this case.’
Trump said he knows ‘for a fact that as soon as he arrives’ in Pyongyang, Kim is ‘going to start a process that makes a lot of people very happy’ even though the statement that his White House provided to press made no mention of an agreed upon timetable for denuclearization.
‘He wants to do that. This isn’t the past. This isn’t another administration that never got it started and therefore never got it done,’ Trump said, tweaking the Obama administration.
The U.S. president told reporters that he became convinced that Kim was serious when he agreed to dismantle a sophisticated missile engine testing site. ‘We’re much further along than I would have thought.’
At the same time, he agreed that there are no guarantees that Kim will tear apart what he called ‘a very substantial arsenal.’
‘Can you ensure anything?’ he asked. ‘All I can say is: They want to make a deal. … Can anybody be certain? But we’re going to be certain soon because the negotiations continue.’
‘I may be wrong,’ he allowed. ‘I may stand before you in six months and say, “Hey, I was wrong.” ‘
And then with a sly smile, Trump joked: ‘I don’t know that I’ll ever admit that, but I’ll find some kind of an excuse.’
The president said he had been working around the clock helping to cement the terms of what he hopes will be an iron-clad agreement that Kim will honor. That would mark a change from North Korea’s past performance on pacts with the West.
‘I haven’t slept in 25 hours, but I thought it was important to do,’ he said, animated as ever in gesture and vocal cadence.’
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