Donald Trump has announced the date of his meeting with Kim Jong-un.
The first ever summit between a sitting US president and North Korean leader will take place in Singapore on Tuesday June 12, Trump said.
Announcing the date of the summit on Twitter, he said: ‘We will both try to make it a very special moment for world peace!’ They are expected to discuss North Korea’s highly controversial nuclear weapons programme.
The historic meeting was unthinkable as recently as last year.
Tensions between the countries grew as Trump and Kim traded insults, with Trump branding his adversary ‘rocket man’ and Kim describing the president as a ‘dotard’.
However, tensions have cooled significantly in recent months.
North Korea’s isolated regime sent athletes to South Korea to compete in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, which was also attended by Kim’s sister.
The dictator has met with South Korean officials including President Moon Jae-in, and this week North Korea changed its time zone by half an hour to align with the south.
Trump previously said he favoured a meeting in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea.
However, many of his advisers believed Singapore was a better choice.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned from a trip to North Korea this week with three Americans that had been held captive under Kim’s regime.
On their return to America, Trump said he believes Kim wants to bring North Korea ‘into the real world’ and had high hopes for the meeting.
He said: ‘I think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful.
‘My proudest achievement will be – this is part of it – when we denuclearise that entire peninsula.’
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