The 2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, commonly known as the Singapore Summit, was a summit meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. president Donald Trump, held at the Capella Hotel, Sentosa, Singapore, on June 12, 2018. It was the first-ever meeting between leaders of North Korea and the United States.
After a period of heightened conflict that included North Korea successfully testing what it claimed was its first hydrogen bomb and the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in late 2017, tensions began to de-escalate after Kim Jong Un announced his desire to send athletes to the 2018 Winter Olympics being held in South Korea. During the games, Kim proposed talks with South Korea to plan an inter-Korean summit. On March 8, the South Korean delegation returned from the talks and traveled to the United States to deliver an invitation by Kim Jong Un to Donald Trump for a meeting. High-level exchanges between the two sides then took place, including a visit by then–CIA director Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang and a visit by Kim Yong-chol, Vice Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, to the White House. Both sides threatened to cancel the summit after a round of joint military exercises by the U.S. and South Korea, with Trump even delivering a formal letter to Kim to call off the meeting; however, the two sides eventually agreed to meet.
Trump and Kim signed a joint statement, agreeing to security guarantees for North Korea, new peaceful relations, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, recovery of soldiers' remains, and follow-up negotiations between high-level officials. Both leaders also met separately with then Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loong. Immediately following the summit, Trump announced that the U.S. military would discontinue "provocative" joint military exercises with South Korea, and stated that he wished to bring the U.S. soldiers back home at some point, but reinforced that it was not part of the Singapore equation. A second meeting was held between Trump and Kim in February 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Background
The Koreas have been divided since 1945. The Korean War of 1950–1953 ended with an armistice agreement but not a peace settlement. A sporadic conflict has continued with American troops remaining in the South as part of a mutual defense treaty. The North began building a nuclear reactor in 1963, and it began a nuclear weapons program in the 1980s. North Korea first committed to denuclearization in 1992 in the Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In a speech authored by David Frum, President George W. Bush referred to North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" during his 2002 State of the Union address, but in the 2005 Joint Statement of the Fourth Round of the Six-Party Talks, North Korea reaffirmed the 1992 Joint Declaration and the goal of verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In 2008, North Korea voluntarily gave information on its nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief, and they were taken off the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Despite this, nuclear inspectors were barred from surveying any North Korean weapons facilities. The Obama administration had a policy of "strategic patience", in which perceived North Korean provocations would not be "rewarded" with presidential attention or the sending of high-level envoys but instead be punished with sanctions and greater military coordination with South Korea and Japan. More nuclear tests were conducted in the succeeding years, and the 2010 bombardment of Yeonpyeong markedly raised tensions between North Korea and South Korea. The escalation of North Korea's nuclear program advanced particularly under the rule of Kim Jong Un, who became the leader in December 2011, after his father Kim Jong Il died.
Donald Trump was elected US president in 2016 with a position of opposition to Barack Obama's policy of "strategic patience" towards North Korea. While advocating a tough stance, he also expressed openness to dialogue, saying he would be prepared to "eat a hamburger" with Kim. He put himself at odds with military allies, saying that it would be better if South Korea and Japan protect themselves. In return, a pro-North Korean website, DPRK Today, described him as a "wise politician". The editorial suggested that Trump might make the slogan "Yankee go home" a reality. In 2017, Moon Jae-in was elected President of South Korea with a promise to return to the Sunshine Policy of friendly relations with the North.
During a period of heightened tensions with the United States, North Korea successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), named Hwasong-14, in July 2017. In response to heightened North Korean rhetoric, Trump warned that any North Korean attack "will be met with fire, fury and frankly, power, the likes of which the world has never seen before". In response, North Korea announced that it was considering a missile test in which the missiles would land near the US territory of Guam. North Korea tested what some sources argued may have been its first hydrogen bomb on September 3. The test was internationally condemned, and further economic sanctions were put on North Korea. The United States also added North Korea back to its State Sponsors of Terrorism list after nine years. On November 28, North Korea launched the Hwasong-15, which, according to analysts, would be capable of reaching anywhere in the United States. The United Nations responded by placing further sanctions on the country. After North Korea claimed that the missile was capable of "carrying [a] super-heavy [nuclear] warhead and hitting the whole mainland of the U.S.", Kim Jong Un announced that they had "finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force", putting them in a position of strength to push the United States into talks.
In his New Year address of 2018, North Korean chairman Kim Jong Un celebrated completing the countries' nuclear capabilities and proposed talks for sending a delegation to the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea. In January a false missile alert alarmed Hawaii. The Seoul–Pyongyang hotline was reopened after almost two years. North Korea sent an unprecedentedly high-authority delegation, headed by Kim Yo-jong, sister of Kim Jong Un, and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly Kim Yong-nam, and including performers like the Samjiyon Orchestra. The delegation passed on an invitation to President Moon to visit North Korea. The United States was represented by Vice President Mike Pence. After arriving late to a dinner hosted by President Moon, he was asked to greet the other dignitaries, but he shook hands with everyone except Kim Yong-nam and left early. North and South Korean athletes marched together in the Olympics opening ceremony and fielded a united women's ice hockey team.
Announcement
On March 5, 2018, South Korea's special delegation agreed to hold the third inter-Korean summit at Inter-Korean Peace House in Panmunjom on April 27, 2018. On March 6, after returning to South Korea, the national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, and National Information Director Suh Hoon traveled to the United States on March 8 to report to Trump about the upcoming inter-Korean summit and relayed to President Trump the North Korean chairman Kim Jong Un's invitation. Trump endorsed the North Korea–United States summit about an hour after receiving the report. The South Korean National Security Adviser (SKNS), Mr. Jeong briefed the public that the North Korea–United States summit would be held sometime in May 2018.
The White House announced that the UN Sanctions would remain in place until an agreement between the United States and North Korea is reached. On March 6, Sarah Sanders said that the White House would need to see "concrete and verifiable steps" toward the denuclearization of North Korea before Trump would meet with Kim Jong Un. Later that day, an unidentified Trump official told The Wall Street Journal that Trump had still accepted Kim Jong Un's invitation.
South Korea's national security adviser Chung Eui-yong visited China on March 12 to meet with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, of the foreign officials and report on the planned inter-Korean summit as well as the North Korea-United States summit and asked their advice. Russia on March 14, 2018, for explaining North Korea and the United States Visit Summary, seeking guidance for upcoming 2018 inter-Korean summit. National Information Director Suh Hoon visited Japan and had a consultation with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe including the foreign officials about the denuclearization and Permanent Peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Preparations
Preparatory talks
According to reporting by The New York Times, American investor Gabriel Schulze conveyed an approach from North Korean officials seeking to establish a back channel to Jared Kushner in 2017. Kushner referred the outreach to the Central Intelligence Agency, which subsequently took the lead in discussions with North Korean officials. Schulze’s early contacts were described as one of several steps that helped set in motion the diplomacy leading to the summit.
South Korea's foreign ministry announced on March 18, 2018 that selected informal delegations from North Korea, South Korea, and the US would meet for denuclearization discussions in April in Vantaa, Finland. (This type of discussions, as held previously, had sometimes been referred to as track-2 talks.) According to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, Choe Kang-il, a deputy director general for North American affairs at North Korea's foreign ministry, would also attend the event, which Yonhap termed "track-1.5 talks".
Kim Jong Un's meeting with Xi Jinping
North Korea's supreme leader Kim was in Beijing on March 25–28, 2018, arriving by special train for talks with China's paramount leader Xi Jinping, Kim's first known out-of-country excursion since taking power six years previously. China stated that North Korea was "committed to denuclearization" and willing to hold a summit with the United States. It was organized by the invitation of Xi. During the meeting between two leaders, Kim officially invited Xi to the North Korean capital Pyongyang when it was convenient in his schedule, and Xi accepted the invitation. Xi urged Kim to strengthen the strategic and diplomatic future partnership between China and North Korea. Kim stressed to Xi that North Korea and China are communist countries and that there are many ways to cooperate in various aspects in the future. Kim and Xi met again on May 7, 2018, in the city of Dalian, China.
Announcement within North Korea
According to North Korea's state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim led a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea's political bureau on April 9, 2018, where he spoke about the planned summit with Trump for the first time.
Proposed conditions by North Korea
On April 11, North Korea presented five entreaties as conditions for the dismissal of their nuclear-capable ICBMs:
- Ensuring the United States and South Korea do not locate nuclear weapons strategic assets within the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula
- Ceasing development or operation of strategic nuclear assets during USFK–ROK combined military training
- Ensuring the United States will not attack North Korea with conventional or nuclear weapons
- Converting the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement into a peace treaty on the Korean Peninsula
- Establishing official diplomatic ties between North Korea and the United States.
Although North Korea was previously expected to request the withdrawal of United States Forces Korea (USFK) from South Korea, North Korea publicized they would embrace the continuous deployment of 25,000 USFK troops in South Korea as long as the security of North Korea is guaranteed.
April 2018 inter-Korean summit
At an inter-Korean summit on April 27, 2018, held at the Peace House in Panmunjom, the leaders of North and South Korea agreed to formally end the Korean War before the end of the year and confirmed the goal of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula through denuclearization.
Release of the American detainees
On May 10, 2018, three Americans held by North Korea were released following negotiations between the Trump administration and the North Korean regime. Some have speculated that their release was part of an attempt of the regime to motivate the US to continue the negotiations and perhaps ease the pressure upon the North Koreans. Nevertheless, their release has managed to ease the tensions between the Trump administration and the North Korean regime, enabling both sides to proceed to further negotiations, possibly leading to the 2018 North Korea–United States summit.
The three Americans Kim Dong Chul, Kim Sang-duk, and Kim Hak-song left North Korea accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and were greeted by the president and the first lady upon their landing on US soil at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
Tensions, cancellation, and reinstatement
American Vice President Mike Pence said on May 21, 2018, that "this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn't make a deal" to "dismantle his nuclear weapons program". Trump had made similar remarks on May 17, as he described that Libya's fate is "what will take place if we don't make a deal". These comments were in reference to the killing of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi after military intervention by Americans and Europeans in 2011. After a NATO airstrike prevented Gaddafi's escape, the Libyan rebels captured, assaulted, sodomized, and executed Gaddafi. However, Libya under Gaddafi had already in 2003 voluntarily ended its nuclear weapons program and complied with conditions set by Western powers. As a result, North Korean vice foreign minister Choe Son-hui called Pence's remarks "ignorant and stupid" and threatened a "nuclear-to-nuclear showdown".